RQ Construction is a privately held design-build firm in Carlsbad, California that builds almost exclusively for the federal government, with the Department of Defense as its primary customer. Searching the name gets confusing fast, because several of the largest recent awards sit under a separate registered entity called DPR-RQ Construction, LLC. Here is what the public record actually shows, and how to apply the same verification steps to any contractor you are considering.
RQ Construction at a Glance
| Item | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Carlsbad, CA (1620 Faraday Avenue) |
| Regional offices | Sneads Ferry NC, Virginia Beach VA, Jacksonville FL, Guantanamo Bay Cuba |
| Ownership | Privately held |
| Primary customer | Department of Defense and other federal agencies |
| Core delivery method | Integrated design-build (architecture, engineering, construction in house) |
| Related entity | DPR-RQ Construction, LLC, registered in California in 2020 |
RQ describes itself as a privately held design-build firm located in Carlsbad, CA, with regional offices in Sneads Ferry, NC, Virginia Beach, VA, Jacksonville, FL, and Cuba.
The company positions itself as a full-service integrated A/E and construction company specializing in design-build projects, serving the Department of Defense as its prominent customer since 1996.
Published project experience spans California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Cuba.
RQ Construction vs. DPR-RQ Construction: Two Names, Two Entities
This is the detail most profiles get wrong, and it matters if you are a subcontractor chasing a payment bond or an owner checking past performance.
California records list DPR-RQ CONSTRUCTION, LLC at 1620 Faraday Ave, Carlsbad, with an incorporation date of 11 February 2020 and both DPR Construction, a general partnership, and RQ Construction, LLC shown on the filing.
Trade coverage describes the arrangement as a joint venture between DPR Construction and RQ Construction.
That is a teaming entity, not a parent-child relationship. Directory listings that call RQ a wholly owned subsidiary are not supported by the registration record.
The volume running through the joint venture is significant. DPR-RQ Construction has over $410 million in awarded prime federal contracts since 2020, primarily from the Department of the Navy and Naval Facilities Engineering Command.
Recent delivery orders include a $237.1 million design-build contract from NAVFAC for an Ambulatory Care Center and Dental Clinic at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with completion scheduled for September 18, 2029.
Practical takeaway: read the entity name on the award document, the subcontract, and the bond. "RQ" and "DPR-RQ" are not interchangeable on paper.
What RQ Construction Builds
The portfolio is organized by facility type rather than by trade. RQ lists delivery of administrative, headquarters and operations facilities, maintenance facilities, hangars and aviation facilities, lodging facilities, training and educational facilities, medical facilities, renovation and expansion projects, utility projects, and multi-facility campus projects.
Recent and current awards
| Project | Value | Status |
|---|---|---|
| P9907 Ambulatory Care Center, MCB Camp Pendleton | $51,436,000 | Completion March 31, 2028 |
| Recapitalize Runway 1-19, USCG Base Elizabeth City, NC | $32,020,000 | Groundbreaking July 2026 |
| B101 Joint Strike Fighter Renovation, NAS Jacksonville, FL | $47,731,855 | Completion September 2028 |
| P0414 Ambulatory Care Center Addition, MCB Camp Pendleton | $27,954,300 | Completion August 2027 |
RQ, as DPR-RQ Construction, LLC, announced a $51,436,000 construction contract for the P9907 Ambulatory Care Center at MCB Camp Pendleton.
The company also announced a $47,731,855 design-build contract for the B101 Joint Strike Fighter Renovation at NAS Jacksonville, FL, expected to be completed by September 2028.
The Coast Guard runway job is the easiest one to verify independently. The Coast Guard's Facilities Design and Construction Center in Norfolk awarded RQ Construction a $32 million design-build contract for reconstruction of crosswind Runway 1-19 and restoration of taxiways Kilo and Golf at Base Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
The scope covers a full reconstruction of the 4,518-foot by 150-foot runway plus upgrades to runway end identifier lights, edge lights, guidance signs, and taxiway lighting. You can read the Coast Guard's award announcement directly.
Leaders broke ground on the $32 million recapitalization in 2026, restoring a runway that had been closed to Coast Guard aircraft since 2008 at the service's largest East Coast aviation hub.
The primary runway stays operational during construction, keeping air operations uninterrupted.
How RQ Delivers: Design-Build, VDC, and Criteria Compliance
Integrated design-build
RQ's stated approach is a comprehensive design-build process that takes a proactive role in both design and construction to control compliance, quality, schedule, safety, and budget. One contract holder owns both halves of the job, which removes the designer-versus-builder gap where most change orders are born.
Criteria and standards
Federal work lives or dies on criteria compliance. RQ states that its integrated design-build team applies the most up-to-date UFCs and standards such as NFPA and ASHRAE to meet RFP criteria.
Those criteria are public. The UFC public library maintained by the National Institute of Building Sciences hosts them. The Unified Facilities Criteria program provides planning, design, construction, sustainment, restoration, and modernization criteria for DoD facilities, and the criteria are mandatory unless a waiver is granted. If a bidder cannot name the governing UFC for your facility type, that is a red flag.
Virtual design and construction
The firm's listed services include construction, architectural design, trade services, virtual design and construction, and LEED/sustainable design management. In practice, VDC on federal medical and aviation work means clash detection happens in the model, not in the field after the overhead rack is hung.
Sustainability and safety
RQ markets in-house LEED capability alongside its construction services. Its portfolio includes federal museum and medical work, and the firm designed and built the museum honoring the Navy's Seabees, the service's construction battalion.
Safety claims are harder to confirm from the outside. Award logos on a website are marketing. EMR letters, OSHA 300 logs, and a site-specific safety plan are evidence. Ask for the second set.
Public Records Tell You More Than Directory Profiles
Here is the information-gain piece most RQ write-ups skip: federal contractors leave a paper trail that includes the losses, not just the wins.
The Government Accountability Office published decision B-422081.2 on January 23, 2025, in which DPR-RQ Construction, LLC of Carlsbad protested issuance of a task order to StructSure Projects, Inc. under an Army Corps Design-Build Initial Outfitting multiple-award IDIQ.
The source selection authority found the competing proposal superior on functional concept and schedule, and assessed increased risk in DPR-RQ's proposed operating room solution.
That record is free to read in the GAO bid protest decision database. For any federal builder you are evaluating, GAO decisions, SAM.gov registration status, and agency press releases carry more weight than a scraped company profile.
Why the Employee and Revenue Numbers Never Match
Third-party databases publish wildly different figures for RQ. Treat all of them as estimates.
| Source type | Employees | Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Business database A |
51-200
|
$46 million
| Business database B |
150
|
$70.06 million
| Trade directory |
250-499
|
Undisclosed
| Professional network |
201-500
| Not listed |
|---|
| Analytics platform |
656 as of July 2026
| Not listed |
For context on how stale some of this data gets: a 2011 executive profile of CEO George H. Rogers III listed 2010 revenue of $100,000,000 and 130 employees for the firm founded in 1996.
Awarded contract value is the number worth tracking. It is dated, attributable, and published by the contracting agency.
What This Means If You Are Hiring a Builder
Most people reading about a federal contractor are not buying a Navy clinic. They are trying to figure out what good contractor vetting looks like, then apply it closer to home.
The transferable checklist:
- Confirm the exact legal entity on the contract, not the brand name on the truck.
- Ask which codes or criteria govern your project and who on the team owns compliance.
- Request the safety record as documents, not awards.
- Verify past projects with the owner, not with a directory listing.
- Get scope, schedule, and allowances in writing before any deposit changes hands.
That is the same discipline we bring to private work in New Jersey. Our team at Lion Construction runs design and construction under one agreement, so homeowners and property managers are not refereeing between an architect and a builder. On our own jobs, the single biggest source of avoided change orders has been resolving mechanical and framing conflicts during drawing review rather than after the rough-in inspection.
If you are weighing delivery methods, our guide to working with a design-build contractor breaks down where the model saves money and where it does not.
For commercial owners, we handle ground-up and renovation scopes through our commercial construction group, along with tenant fitups for landlords turning over space between leases. Residential and mixed scopes run through our general contractor division.
Ready to price a project? Get a free estimate and we will walk the site with you.
FAQ
When was RQ Construction founded?
RQ Construction was established in 1996. It began with a Southern California design-build focus and expanded into nationwide and overseas federal work.
Who owns RQ Construction, and is it part of DPR Construction?
RQ Construction, LLC is privately held. It is not the same company as DPR Construction. A separate entity, DPR-RQ CONSTRUCTION, LLC, was registered in California on 11 February 2020 at the Carlsbad address, with DPR Construction and RQ Construction, LLC both appearing on the filing.
That entity is described in trade coverage as a joint venture between the two firms.
Who is the CEO of RQ Construction?
George Rogers has been identified in published interviews as president and CEO of RQ Construction.
A San Diego Business Journal executive profile listed his full name as George H. Rogers III, CEO of RQ Construction LLC. Leadership changes, so confirm current titles with the company before relying on this.
Where is RQ Construction located?
The headquarters address on file is 1620 Faraday Ave, Carlsbad, CA 92008.
Regional offices are listed in Virginia Beach VA, the Camp Lejeune area of NC, Jacksonville FL, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Some older directory entries still show a prior Carlsbad street address.
What is RQ Construction's annual revenue?
The company is private and does not publish financials. One business database estimates $46 million , while another lists roughly $70.06 million . Awarded federal contract value is the more reliable capacity signal.
How many employees does RQ Construction have?
Estimates range widely by source, from 51-200 to 250-499 to 656 as of July 2026 . None of these are company-confirmed figures.
What types of projects does RQ Construction build?
Headquarters and operations buildings, maintenance facilities, hangars and aviation facilities, lodging, training and educational facilities, medical facilities, renovations and expansions, utility projects, and multi-facility campuses.
Recent federal work has concentrated in medical facilities such as veterinary clinics, ambulatory care centers, and dental facilities.
Does RQ Construction work on residential or private projects in New Jersey?
No. Its work is federal and institutional, and concentrated on military installations. For homes, commercial buildings, and tenant spaces in New Jersey, contact our team instead.
How do subcontractors get on a federal project team?
Start with the prime's small business program contact, register in SAM.gov, and have bonding capacity, a current EMR, and relevant past performance ready. On design-build jobs, early-trade input is often solicited during design, so reach out before the RFP closes rather than after award.
This profile was researched and written by the editorial team at Lion Construction, a licensed New Jersey general contractor, using agency press releases, state business filings, and federal award records. Questions or a correction? Reach us through our contact page.
