Meet Our Team

James H. Edmondson is a Principal and Founder of Wellington Community Partners. He has over forty years of experience in real estate development and finance, most of it related to affordable housing. Jim started his business career in 1972 in Washington, D.C. as a consultant at Touche Ross & Co., (now Deloitte) after serving as an officer in the U.S. Army. In 1975, he left Touche Ross to join a Columbus, Ohio-based firm, Realcon III. He and his partners developed condominiums, managed real estate, and worked out loans for banks. During this time, Jim served as a consultant on several long-term development projects, several funded by The Ford. In 1981, Jim persuaded a former colleague and then Touche Ross partner, Tom Gallagher, to join him in forming Edmondson & Gallagher with the purpose of acquiring and redeveloping post-war apartments in the D. C. area using the new financing tools and tax laws. The firm grew a portfolio of approximately 3,000 deed-restricted units and created a property management company that continues. E&G became expert in compliance issues and the rehabilitation of apartment buildings using all the affordable housing tools. In the 1990s Jim launched and ran the nonprofit Cornerstone Housing Corporation for the Enterprise Foundation, which profitably accumulated and preserved a portfolio of over 5,000 affordable apartments in markets around the country. Jim is active in local affairs in Northern Virginia. He was a founding member of AHOME, an affordable housing advocacy group, now merged with NVAHA; he was vice chair of the Health Systems Agency of Northern Virginia for many years; he has served as an elder of Lewinsville Presbyterian Church and serves on the Presbytery’s real estate committee; and he has held other positions of responsibility in community organizations. In 2009, Governor Kaine re-appointed him as a consumer representative to the Virginia Board of Health, and he finished a second 4-year term in 2013. Governors McAuliffe and Northam have since re-appointed him through 2022. One of his proudest achievements is serving as pro bono developer of Chesterbrook Residences, an affordable assisted living facility in McLean with great support from the County. He has been directly involved in planning and developing affordable housing in Fairfax County since 2003, having served on the ADU High Rise Committee, on the affordable housing committee of the Tysons Task Force, on the Seven Corners Task Force, and on the BOS’ Affordable Housing Resources Panel. Jim has an A.B. in Economics from Princeton, where he is active in alumni affairs, and an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. His wife is Jane Edmondson, and he is the proud father of four and even prouder grandfather of 11.