Like many fast-growing suburbs, Redmond, Washington, knew plenty about constructing roads and fire stations but little about making civic buildings. Home to both Microsoft and Nintendo, this town—16 miles east of Seattle—saw its population jump by nearly one third, to 46,000 people, in the past 20 years. At the same time, the city’s staff more than doubled, growing into seven different facilities. Operational efficiency demanded consolidation. But the design-bid-build process, once the norm for civic facilities, carries financial and political risks in today’s environment of spiraling construction costs. So Redmond chose a path increasingly popular with municipalities nationwide: forming a nonprofit corporation that finances and constructs a building, then leases it back to the city.
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