REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS/QUALIFICATIONS
POTENTIAL POOL PROJECT
BLUFFTON, INDIANA
I. PROJECT INTRODUCTION:
In accordance with IC 5-23-5, the city of Bluffton, Indiana (the “City”), invites any and all qualified parties to submit Proposals and Statements of Qualifications to submit proposals for a potential new municipal pool (the “Project”) in Bluffton, Indiana, under a public-private partnership. The purpose and intent of the Project is to (1) fulfill essential public safety, economic development, quality of life, population attraction and retention goals for the City, (2) to improve operational efficiencies of the City’s assets, and (3) to meet the City’s obligation to provide safe and clean municipal facilities.
II. PROJECT SCOPE:
The purpose of this Request for Proposals and Qualifications (the “RFPQ”) is to identify firms that have capabilities to provide development services, design services, and/or construction services for the Project. The City requests that firms do not team together in their RFPQ response to provide all of these services as one team, as the selection committee would like to evaluate each firm based on its own merit and qualifications for the specific scope of work that it is capable of providing. Although the City has a clear need for a revitalized city pool (and related infrastructure and facilities), the scope of the Project is not determined. The final Project scope will be determined through a scoping period with the selected proposers, during which the selected proposers will be required to provide site analysis and design services for various site and building opportunities, and construction analysis to create a final scope and a guaranteed budget. The scoping period is anticipated to be an intense process, with the goal of achieving a guaranteed price and final schematic design in Spring, 2025 in order to begin construction soon thereafter. As part of the scoping process, the selected proposer may be asked to provide multiple budgets for several different scenarios, sites, and/or phases so the City can make an informed decision on moving forward (or not) with the Project. Upon receiving satisfactory scoping period deliverables from the selected offerors, the City will move forward with the Project and selected offeror via resolution or ordinance at a public hearing to complete the design, construction, and development of the Project. If (1) the selected offerors are unable to produce satisfactory deliverables including desirable budget, or (2) the City determines that the Project is not necessary or wise based on the results of the scoping period, then the City will begin a new scoping period with other offerors or cancel this RFPQ process altogether. In either event, the resulting scoping period deliverables will be solely owned by the City, and the City may use the information from the scoping period deliverables for its use and benefit.
III. PROPOSAL EVALUATION:
The City has formed a committee to review the proposals received. The criteria which will be utilized in evaluating proposals is as follows:
• Your experience developing similar projects
• Your demonstrated ability and capacity to perform the work, including your reputation as indicated by your references for performing this type of work
• Your approach to the Project
• Your fees during the scoping period
IV. PROPOSALS
Please respond to the following requests:
• Provide a general company overview
• Identify which of the requested services (development, construction, or design) your firm is capable of self-performing and provide references for at least three (3) similar projects you have completed. Include names and telephone numbers to be used as references relative to the listed projects.
• Provide an overview of your approach to the Project, including how you would work with other firms the City may select to work with your company on completing the scoping period.
• The scoping process will be very intense and focused, in which time the selected proposer would need to prepare scoping period deliverables sufficient for the City to make a decision on proceeding (or not) with the Project and/or with the selected proposer. The assembled team will ultimately be responsible to provide site analysis, construction/scope analysis, and a guaranteed budget. Please identify fees that may be requested by your team during this process. You may offer an overall lump sum or multiple lump sums segregated by task or team member.
V. General Conditions
It should be understood that:
• The City reserves the right to reject any and all Proposals/Statements of Qualifications at its sole discretion. The City may select more than one offeror to team together or no offerors at all.
• The City does not require you to submit a certified check or other evidence of financial responsibility with your proposal.
• The City will equally weigh the offeror’s qualifications/experience and the offeror’s proposed scoping period fees when evaluating submissions.
• All offerors will be accorded fair and equal treatment with respect to any opportunity for discussion and revision of proposals. The City may enter into discussions with offerors to clarify and assure a full understanding of proposals.
• The City may refuse to disclose the contents of the Proposals/ Statement of Qualifications during discussions with eligible offerors.
• All correspondence and questions for this RFPQ should be directed as follows:
Brandy Fiechter, Parks Director — Email: parks@blufftonindiana.gov
• The City reserves the right to enter into a scoping agreement with offeror(s) for preliminary design and development services prior to the City agreeing to move forward with the Project. After the scoping period, the RFPQ Committee shall either make a recommendation to award the public-private agreement to an offeror, engage another offeror or, alternatively, shall terminate the RFPQ process.
• Submittal: An electronic PDF of the Proposal/Statement of Qualifications should be emailed to:
Brandy Fiechter, Parks Director — Email: parks@blufftonindiana.gov
Proposals must be received by 2:00 pm EST on January 24, 2025
nb 1/10, 1/17
hspaxlp