EBF Jr/Sr High School Classroom & Food Storage Additions
Completed: March 2026
Size of Project: 8,200 sq/ft
Contract Amount: $3,123,000
A First for EBF: How Construction Manager at Risk Delivered More for Less in Eddyville, Iowa
When the Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Community School District needed more space at its Jr/Sr High School, it tried something new. For the first time, the district chose the Construction Manager at Risk (CMaR) delivery method and brought Christner Contracting onto the team during design, before construction started.
The project included two additions. One added six new classrooms to the north wing of the Jr/Sr High School. The other was a new food storage building next to the cafeteria and kitchen. Together they added about 8,200 square feet of space for the district.
Because Christner was involved early, the district got several advantages it wouldn’t have had with a traditional bid:
Cost input during design. Christner worked with the district and Encite Architecture + Design while the drawings were still being developed. That let the team check costs and make decisions before plans were finalized, not after bids came in.
Competitive bidding at the trade level. Christner split the work into eight bid packages, from sitework and masonry to mechanical and electrical. This gave more local subcontractors the chance to compete directly on each part of the work.
Phased delivery. Construction started in June 2025. The food storage building was finished in September 2025, near the start of the school year, and the classroom addition was completed in March 2026.
Openness with every dollar. As CMaR, Christner managed the budget alongside the district and kept the district informed of costs throughout the project.
The result: the project came in nearly 23% under budget. Every dollar of unused contingency went back to EBF, and the district used it for additional improvements. For a district trying CMaR for the first time, the project showed what this approach can deliver.
