Garfield Public/Private

Garfield Public/Private is a Dallas developer that works only on public and public/private projects. Ray Garfield and Greg Garfield founded it in 1997 to finance and develop facilities that cities, counties, schools and other public bodies own or use, using a turnkey approach that’s meant to deliver faster than traditional public bidding. Its portfolio spans convention hotels, government and justice buildings, education, performing arts, sports and entertainment venues, offices and parking. The firm and its executives say they’ve developed more than 30 million square feet and financed over $11 billion. Garfield is the developer of The Cade Hotel and Convention Center in Roanoke, Texas, a roughly $104 million design-build project designed by BOKA Powell.

Garfield’s four service lines read in sequence, and that sequence is the product. Strategic planning and consulting comes first, before a project formally exists: needs assessment, commissioned market and economic impact analyses, site analysis and selection, spatial program and design concept, development budget and schedule, an operating pro forma, and a financing and fundraising plan, presented back for a client decision. Only then does development begin – site acquisition, deal structuring, legal documentation, financing and fundraising, and oversight of development, design and construction, including operator or brand selection and pre-opening staffing and marketing.

Development financing is treated as its own discipline, aimed at the financial, legal and political obstacles that stop public facilities getting built. The firm is direct about the claim: its deal techniques are not commonly known to conventional private developers, and its turnkey method is intended to minimise the public client’s risk while delivering faster and more reliably than traditional public bid processes. Asset management closes the loop after opening, monitoring performance standards and operations.

The leadership roster explains how one firm covers planning through financing through delivery. Raymond Garfield Jr. is chairman and Greg Garfield president. Steve Galbreath, AIA, is chief development officer – an architect in the development seat, which is uncommon. Dan Hennessy serves as general counsel in house, which matters when the work is structured around public bond financing and intergovernmental agreements, and Laura Galbreath and Rick Wilczak are senior vice presidents on the development side.

The published portfolio spans nine categories: education, government, sports and entertainment, hospitality, performing arts and culture, justice, mixed use, office and parking. Justice and performing arts facilities in particular are building types most developers never touch, because the client is always a public body and the financing is never conventional.

Within the development phase the firm also lists administering design and construction documents, overseeing sustainability and LEED planning, running value engineering with the team, periodic estimating and scheduling, and closeout and facility turnover. For a city, county or school district, that is a single accountable counterparty from first study to handover.