Regional planners outline competitive RFP process and potential funding pathways for campus redevelopment
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Summary
Southwest Regional Planning Commission proposed an RFP-managed process to solicit developer proposals for the county campus redevelopment, described evaluation matrices and public Q&A, and discussed funding avenues including EDA and WEDC programs and possible tax-increment financing with the city.
The Southwest Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SWRPC) presented an RFP-based approach to identify developers or development teams for the county'owned campus site and outlined how the commission would manage the RFP, screening and evaluation.
Kate (Southwest Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission) described the scope: SWRPC would compile project information, draft the RFP, manage questions via a public Q&A so all bidders see the same responses, and prepare an evaluation matrix for the county to score proposals. "Our goal, first and foremost, is always to make sure that our communities thrive and grow and have access to all the data and facts that we have available," Kate said. She added SWRPC would rate respondents on track record, references, funding depth and other criteria and would work with the committee to set evaluation priorities.
Troy Nagy, director at SWRPC, emphasized fairness and market-driven creativity: "the trick is, to ensure the fairness in the RFP process, but also use the market, the competitive market, to enable creativity from each developer." He described the RFP as a tool to ask developers for vision and proposed uses rather than just construction costs, and urged bidders to spell out proposed funding streams.
Committee members asked who would pursue grant funding. Kate said that grant-writing was not part of the RFP scope presented: "It is not addressed that for us to pursue grants, in this RFP that we've presented this time. It is something that we have done in the past and could quote separately." She and Nagy said bidders could be asked to identify grants or incentives they would pursue and that the RFP could list potential public funding streams for reference.
Speakers discussed specific funding sources and local incentives. Troy noted past regional work that used Economic Development Administration (EDA) funding for industrial parks and said the county should consider which funding programs align with proposed uses (for example, EDA typically does industrial development and not housing). He also noted the city has available capacity for tax-increment financing (TIF) and recommended early coordination: a friendly conversation with city officials "can never happen too soon," he said. Committee members planned a meeting with a city official the following week to begin that coordination.
No contract award or RFP authorization vote was taken during the meeting. The committee heard that another consultant could present a competing proposal on July 2, and members requested the SWRPC materials and a follow-up workshop to refine RFP requirements if SWRPC is engaged.
Ending: Committee agreed to solicit a second proposal and to convene follow-up meetings to refine RFP content; no procurement decision was made.
