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Back to School: Public Private Partnerships for K-12 Building Programs

August 9, 2022
Susan Tully
Chronically underfunded, many school districts across the country struggle with how to allocate limited funds to building programs. With an aging stock of buildings in dire need of repair or replacement, districts historically use capital funds for emergency repairs or renovations to address system needs, but rarely is there an opportunity to address educational inequities within the buildings.

To bridge this gap, many school districts have turned to public private partnership (P3) models, thereby easing fiscal restraints and boosting efficiency.

In conjunction with Gilbane Development Company, under our “one company” approach, Gilbane delivers innovative P3 approaches that offer school districts with flexible, customized, turnkey building solutions that greatly reduce project delivery time frames and lower costs.

Northeast Community Propel Academy – Philadelphia, PA

The 180,000-SF Northeast Community Propel Academy addresses Philadelphia’s sustained and extraordinary growth in its northeast neighborhoods by providing a combined elementary and middle school that accommodates 1,600 students. Through a public-private partnership with the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), Gilbane Development Company provided turnkey development of the new school.

An Innovative Model

Constructed on land adjacent to an existing high school owned by the SDP, the district transferred the property to Gilbane via a purchase and sale for the explicit purpose of developing the new K-8 school. Upon completion, the SDP repurchased the property with the completed project. The capital stack consists of 100% debt backed by the credit of the SDP, who committed to a bond issuance to pay for the turn-key delivery.

With Gilbane Development Company serving as developer and Gilbane Building Company as the design-builder with Stantec as the lead design firm, this innovative P3 approach allowed the team to deliver the Propel Academy project from financial close to substantial completion in just 16 months – enabling the SDP to open the doors to students for the 2021-2022 school year. Additionally, the Northeast Community Propel Academy was developed from the issuance of the Request for Proposal to the school opening in just three years, a process that traditionally has taken the School District of Philadelphia at least ten years to complete.

Increased Impact

 width=A typical building program and standard procurement model would have exposed the SDP to significant risk, such that the total cost of a project is not determined until construction is complete and the final change order paid.  Additionally, Propel Academy is located in a part of the city of Philadelphia that is experiencing unprecedented population growth and the timeline of the P3 model ensured that much needed teaching space was made available much earlier than a traditional delivery method would allow. By streamlining design-to-delivery, reducing financial risk, and engaging builders as partners early in the conversation, SDP managed its capital resources better and more quickly addressed the disparities in its system.

The Gilbane and Stantec team’s co-location and collaboration helped to ensure a smooth turnover, completing the project 22 days before the contracted completion. The project also remained within the $80 million budget which the SDP approved within six months of the contract award. Throughout construction, there was only one change order which was identified as an add alternate prior to notice to proceed. Closeout was completed within 30 days of substantial completion, with all as-builts turned over within this timeframe, allowing turnover of the project to proceed and the school to open on schedule.

Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) – Blueprint Schools

 width=Following a competitive procurement process, PGCPS selected Prince George’s County Education and Community Partners (Gilbane Development Company and Fengate as Developer, Gilbane Building Company as Design-Build Contractor, Stantec and Designer and Architect of Record and Honeywell as Services Provider) to design, build, finance, and maintain (DBFM) six public schools, adding 8,000 seats across 5 new middle schools and one K-8 school. PGCPS is the first district in the U.S to embrace an alternative delivery approach to design-build-finance-maintain a group of public school buildings, and the approach is expected to cut the delivery time in half while saving over $174 million in deferred maintenance and construction costs.

Economic stimulus as a result of the program include inclusion goals through diverse and local business utilization, with construction targeting 30% minority business enterprise participation, with 20% directed to community-based businesses creating 3,000 jobs; 3,000+ new jobs created; 2% local GDP increase; and LEED Silver equivalency targeted.

Gilbane’s P3 Group 

Gilbane’s public private partnership group specializes in implementing innovative real estate and financial solutions for a multitude of entities and institutions – from K-12 to higher education and beyond. Learn more here 



About Authors
With over 34 years of experience in construction and nearly 20 years at Gilbane, Sue Tully has managed a large portfolio of projects with a concentration in the education sector. In addition to her leadership role on projects, she is Gilbane’s K-12 Education Center of Excellence leader. She serves as a resource for all K-12 education project teams by bringing lessons learned and best practices from a depth of K-12 experience across the country. Sue ensures knowledge-sharing on current trends, sustainable design practices, construction solutions, and operational issues specific to the K-12 sector. Her project involvement includes the Community College of Philadelphia, Princeton University, Rider University, Rutgers University, Trenton School District and multiple facilities for the School District of Cheltenham Township. She is currently leading construction on a new Turnkey K-8 School for the School District of Philadelphia which is being delivered under a finance, design and construction contract.
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