Concert-Bird team wins $351M school bundle

Key Takeaways:

• Alberta is advancing a $351 million P3 project to design and construct seven new schools.
• Concert-Bird Partners will execute the design-build-finance-maintain contract, delivering 524,000 square feet of total school space.
• Construction will begin shortly, with all seven schools scheduled to welcome students for the 2028-29 school year.

The Whole Story:

The Government of Alberta has reached financial close on its seventh public-private partnership (P3) school bundle, paving the way for the construction of seven new elementary and junior high schools. Valued at more than $351 million in direct construction costs, the project will create modern learning environments for over 6,100 students in Edmonton, Calgary, and Chestermere to address critical enrollment pressures driven by rapid regional population growth.

“With almost 90,000 more students entering Alberta’s education system over the past four years, the need for new school spaces has never been greater,” said Demetrios Nicolaides, Minister of Education and Childcare. He noted that the new builds join a massive provincial pipeline of “161 school projects currently underway across the province.”

The delivery contract has been awarded to the Concert-Bird Partners consortium—composed of Concert Infrastructure, Bird Construction, Wright Construction Western, BR2 Architecture, and Ainsworth. Utilizing a Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) model, the consortium will handle both the rapid construction phase and the subsequent long-term maintenance of the facilities. While the physical buildings will remain fully publicly owned, the integrated P3 delivery approach is structured to generate more than $76 million in value-for-money savings—representing an 18 percent cost reduction compared to traditional design-bid-build procurement models.

“This project shows how the public-private partnership model delivers value in the right context through clear scope, repeatable design, long-term maintenance and strong accountability,” said Derron Bain, Chief Executive Officer of Concert Infrastructure. “Concert Infrastructure is proud to partner with the Government of Alberta, Bird, Wright, BR2 and Ainsworth to deliver high-quality schools for generations.”

Sunder the current development schedule, early groundwork and site preparation are slated to begin shortly. The complete network of seven schools is targeted to officially open for the start of the 2028-29 academic school year.

The multi-school development program will deliver roughly 524,000 square feet of state-of-the-art, accessible educational space across three fast-growing municipal areas:

• Edmonton (Glenridding Heights): A new K-6 facility under the Edmonton Public School Division.
• Edmonton (Laurel): A new K-9 facility under the Edmonton Catholic School Division.
• Edmonton (McConachie/Pilot Sound): A new grades 7-9 facility under the Edmonton Public School Division.
• Edmonton (River’s Edge): A new K-9 facility under the Edmonton Catholic School Division.
• Calgary (Redstone): A new K-6 facility under the Calgary Catholic School Division.
• Calgary (Redstone): A new K-5 facility under the Calgary Public School Division.
• Chestermere: A new K-9 facility under the Rocky View School Division.