Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) is expected to issue a shortlist of bidders interested the Phase 2 of its Blueprint Schools P3 programme in the next few days.

PGCPS has received bids from at least 4 teams in response to the RFQ issued late October (2022), with Phase 1 winning team – Fengate and Gilbane – putting their hat in the ring again, according to 2 sources.

The other 3 respondents are understood to be led by:

• John Laing and Balfour Beatty
• Star America and Edgemoor
• Plenary

PGCPS is looking for a partner to DBFM 4 elementary schools and 2 K-8 schools, building on the success of Phase 1 which included 5 new middle schools and 1 K-8 school.

As a result of that project, the county became the first district in the US to finance the construction of elementary schools using this financing mechanism. The project reached financial close on 18 December 2020 through a private placement.

The procuring authority anticipates that Phase 2 will use a substantially similar commercial and financial structure as Phase 1. The concession is expected to last 30 years excluding the 3-year construction period.  

Funding for availability payments will be provided annually by:

• State – $25 million
• County – up to $10 million
• PGCPS – $15M annually

The schools that will be replaced in phase 2 are:

• Margaret Brent Regional School
• Glenridge Elementary School
• James E Duckworth
• Regional School
• Calverton Elementary School
• Beltsville Academy
• Hyattsville Elementary School
• Springhill Lake Elementary School
• Gwynn Park Middle School
• Brandywine Elementary School
• Baden Elementary School
• Robert Frost Elementary School
• Charles Carroll Middle School
• Carrollton Elementary School

 PGCPS in February 2022 selected JLL as the financial adviser along with KDA and Arcadis as technical advisers for the project, as revealed by IJGlobal.

At the time of publishing, the RFQ could be viewed here…

PGCPS was contacted for a comment but did not respond by the time of publication.