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City staff seek clarifications from proposers on government campus redevelopment; council to take initial ranking Feb. 11
Summary
City staff and CBRE asked the four downtown campus proposers to submit program tweaks and final financial details ahead of the council’s Feb. 11 ranking. Staff is engaging consultants for traffic, planning, walkability, sustainability and economic analysis and has retained outside counsel for potential public-private partnership agreements.
City staff told the Boca Raton City Council on Tuesday they have asked the four firms that submitted proposals for the government campus redevelopment to provide any final changes and financial clarifications by the end of the week so councilors can review materials ahead of an initial ranking scheduled for Feb. 11.
“Our request to the proposers is to give us their final changes to their plans,” city project manager said, noting the team also asked proposers to firm up financial assumptions so staff could compare submissions consistently. He said staff asked proposers to assume 85,000 square feet for a new city hall and 35,000 square feet for a community center in their financial packages to standardize evaluations.
Staff plans to retain independent consultants for traffic, planning/code review, walkability, environmental and macro-level economic analysis and has engaged a financial advisory firm to help normalize tax revenue assumptions, staff said. The city attorney’s office has retained multiple outside counsel — including Claudia McKenna and the firm Weisbroda — to assist with review of interim and comprehensive public-private partnership agreements.
The project team is also looking at short- and long-term leasable property options, said staff, and will meet with the Beach & Park District to discuss relocation of recreational resources that now occupy parts of the campus. Staff said a draft interim agreement has been circulated internally and with CBRE to be used as a template for negotiation with the selected developer.
Council members emphasized the need to limit wholesale reworkings of proposals after public presentations while allowing proposers to respond to specific feedback. Council member Recker urged staff to ensure the public has adequate time to review any substantive changes: “If they come back with a similar project, we are not having people present again,” she said, adding that small tweaks are acceptable but wholesale overhauls would require renewed public presentations.
Other council members and staff stressed the need for clarifications rather than wholesale redesigns and noted that some clarifying information cannot be addressed in the seven-minute Q&A each councilor had at the proposers’ presentations. Public commenters raised traffic and public safety concerns tied to scale; a resident asked the council to specify traffic capacity, FAR and resident counts to help the public give informed comments.
Staff said it will share a compilation of all public comments with the proposers (as has already been done) and will highlight any changes proposers make to their programs so the council and public can see what the firms submit in response. The council’s schedule anticipates an initial selection on Feb. 11 and continued negotiations and public review thereafter.
