Highmark School Development
We take care of the
What we do

We’ve done this before,
and perfected our process.

We listen to your vision and create a tailor-made game plan for every step, from facility planning to school construction. We’ll manage contractor relationships, unforeseen challenges, and negotiations throughout the process to provide efficient, cost-effective solutions that achieve your vision.

—  Project Planning

—  Property Acquisition

—  Pre-Development Capital

—  School Construction

—  Support Services

Our commitment to you:

  • We keep our promises.
  • We show up with solutions.
  • We are transparent with every step.
  • We deliver on time.
Project Planning

Successful schools start with a plan.

We partner with you to create a school development plan covering academics, finance, governance, and operations. You’ll lead the way in communicating your vision, and we’ll act as consultants—working towards our shared goal of long-term financial health and sustainability for your school.

Dream Casting

We want to know your story, who you serve, your programming, community, and stakeholders. This helps us cast your vision into a new facility plan.

Sustainability

Finding the perfect development project size is challenging but critical to long-term viability. We ensure your development plan meets your school’s programming and enrollment needs while staying within your budget.

Communication

We know this process can be daunting. Our team is available and willing to provide information through regular calls, written communication, and board presentations.

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Property Acquisition

Secure the best location for your school.

Strategic property acquisition is more than just a transaction. It’s about creating a solid foundation for your educational facility to flourish. Highmark partners with you in the real estate process, helping you acquire land or existing buildings to support your vision.

Finding the Optimal Location & Site Evaluation

We identify available buildings or land and carefully evaluate the practical aspects of each potential property. We carefully determine if the site meets your school’s programmatic and facilities requirements.

Comprehensive Site Analysis

We look at every detail—including a demographic analysis to determine how the community will support the school, utility access, traffic flows, parking, accessibility, and environmental concerns.

Navigating Municipal Approvals

We know the intricacies of school construction and proactively consider all factors, such as structural building issues, entitlements, and municipal approvals.

Pre-Development Capital

You’ve got the dream—now you need the means.

Building incredible schools requires a lot of up-front cash, plain and simple. Whether you are starting a new school or are an established school looking to upgrade your facility, we’re here to help—with ZERO upfront costs from you.

No Out-Of-Pocket Expenses

It’s difficult to meet the various approval requirements before project financing is complete. Highmark takes care of 100% of the pre-development capital with zero out-of-pocket expense to you. A simple agreement to reimburse upfront costs at the closing of your financing is all that’s needed.

School Selected Financing

A partnership with Highmark also leverages our strong working relationships. Whether you’ve selected a conventional loan, lease-to-buy, or private investment financing option, we can help you move through the process efficiently and effectively.

Sustainable Development

We work to formalize your vision in a manner that minimizes costs, maximizes your school’s dollars, and ensures project viability. We believe in being a good partner and providing organized and coordinated project information to you and your selected lending source to maximize efficiency.

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School Construction

Control costs with our design-build approach.

Rather than separate contracts leading to fragmented communication, Highmark streamlines contracting between architects, engineers, and subcontractors to make your school construction straightforward and cost-effective. With our design-build method, we deliver the highest quality and best value to you.

Single Contract

Once the property is acquired, we negotiate a single contract with a thoroughly vetted and experienced builder and architect who understands the unique needs and challenges of constructing schools. This approach consolidates responsibility, simplifies communication, and accelerates school construction schedules.

Construction Cost Estimation

We estimate all hard project costs, from site work and materials to labor and project administration, while anticipating potential unforeseen expenses or delays to ensure project affordability.

Maintain Budgets & Reduce Cost Overruns

Our team effectively controls budgets and reduces the potential for cost overruns. We foster an environment of collaboration and transparency, empowering all parties to work together towards a common goal: successful education facility construction.

Support Services

We know schools. Let us help.

Highmark does much more than facility development. As experienced education professionals, we work alongside school boards, school leadership, finance managers, and teachers to assess the capacity of an organization and guide it on the journey toward academic and operational success, long-term financial health, and sustainability—all to ensure schools are creating environments where children can learn and grow.

School Support

This includes governance training and board recruitment, succession planning, school expansion/replication affordability analysis, facility usage optimization, budget development and financial analysis, marketing, community engagement, student recruitment, academic growth, and instructional coaching.

Association & Authorizer Support

Our services assist associations and authorizers in expanding and strengthening school resources. This includes budget and projection analysis; customized in-person and webinar training for all stages of school growth and development, coaching and intervention, and so much more.

Risk Assessment & Management

We provide performance oversight to investors and charter authorizers to ensure schools are viable and high-quality. This includes facility affordability and pro forma analysis, pre-investment school and facility underwriting, proactive asset protection and risk mitigation, performance monitoring and reporting, and default intervention.

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Our Process

We’re with you from vision-casting to ribbon-cutting.

At Highmark, we lift the burden of school development off your shoulders. We’re with you every step of the way, from listening to your dreams to handing you the keys.


What we do at Highmark sets us apart, but it’s also how we do it. We are transparent and never make promises we can’t keep. We deliver on time and within budget. We’re the team you can trust, with the experience and know-how to turn your dream into reality.

PHASE 1

Dreaming & Listening

Our first phase involves listening to your dreams and creating a pre-development plan. We want to hear everything—from that one 'wild and crazy' idea for your school to the details about your community and the kids you serve. We’ll wrap this phase with a clear, strategic game plan that’s ready to move forward.

  • Dream Meetings—Planning meetings for listening, strategizing, and vision casting.

  • Project Viability Assessment—We’re honest about what’s possible and what’s not.

  • Timelines—Who’s doing what and when.

  • Board Meeting Presentations—You choose the level of involvement from us.

PHASE 2

Land Acquisition

Together, we established a game plan, and now it’s time to pick the location. Our real estate experts identify as many locations as possible that match your criteria. We’ll narrow out the no-go options and present the final selections to you with detailed explanations. At the end of this phase, you’ll have your place!

  • Identify Available Land/Buildings—We see what’s on the market.

  • Affordability Analysis—We determine project size and budget.

  • Location Analysis—We analyze each location to see what can be reasonably developed.

  • Presentations—We present our findings to your team.

PHASE 3

Pre-Development Capital

While identifying your new location, we also support you in establishing a sustainable facilities development plan based on your school’s selected form of financing. Our team meets with you to determine your expectations for the project, whether you want to own, lease long-term, or lease-to-own.

  • Financing Options—Typical options include conventional loans, lease-to-buy, and private investment.

  • Reimbursement Agreement—An agreement to reimburse upfront costs, paid by Highmark on behalf of the school, at the closing of your financing.

  • Communicating Details—We support our clients by ensuring all the necessary development project details are communicated to lenders to provide a smooth financing process.

PHASE 4

Design & Build

You made it to the active construction phase! This is the fun part of reviewing the architect’s proposal for building designs, the not-as-fun part of determining how to keep everything within budget, and then launching the actual construction of the building. Again, we’ll do the heavy lifting, managing contractors and negotiating costs so you can focus on running your school. Our transparent process keeps you updated every step of the way.

  • Weekly Meetings—We bring in our facility development team for weekly updates on every moving part.

  • Architecture & Pre-Construction Proposals—Vetting, managing, and reviewing the design of the building.

  • Construction Contract—Vetting and managing the contractor and construction budget throughout the entire build.

  • Final Details—Furniture, security, lending updates—we’ll help cover all the final details!

PHASE 5

Grand Opening

At last, it’s the day we’ve all been waiting for: the grand opening! Teachers are filling their new classrooms with decorations and supplies, kids are preparing to return to school, and you are breathing a sigh of relief because you made it!

  • Building Walk-Through—We walk through your facility with the contractor for the final building review.

  • Key Delivery—We’ll hand you the keys to your building with all the necessary occupancy permits in place!

  • Ribbon Cutting—Many schools opt for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, which we love to attend in person!

PHASE 6

Ongoing Support

We don’t leave you high and dry—we know little things pop up. We’ll stay in touch with you and our contractors to ensure everything runs smoothly. We love to see your new school thriving and filled with new students!

  • Availability—We’re available to answer any questions as you start the school year.

  • 10-Month Warranty Walk-Through—We assist you in identifying any necessary warranty repairs.

  • Future Planning—Many schools have a big vision to continue growing. When you’re ready, we’re ready.

Get the whitepaper

Top 20 project missteps

We put together a comprehensive guide for what to do—and not do—during a school development project. Download our whitepaper for free.

Project Missteps
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(801) 256-9550