Council hears update on government campus procurement; staff seeks final tweaks from proposers

City staff updated the Boca Raton City Council on Jan. 28 about next steps in the government campus master-plan procurement and the process for selecting a public-private partner.

Mr. Lukasick said staff and the city’s consultant CBRE asked proposers to submit any final changes or responses to council and public comments by Friday and that staff is "starting to normalize what the tax revenues are going to look like" to evaluate proposals on a consistent basis. He said staff will ask proposers to assume roughly 85,000 square feet for city hall and 35,000 square feet for a community center to provide a common financial baseline.

"We're engaging a financial advisory firm to help us run through those numbers as well," Lukasick said, and staff will share financial analyses and any draft interim agreement language with the council ahead of the Feb. 11 selection meeting. He added staff plans to have mobility, walkability, code and environmental consultants evaluate traffic generation, intersection delays and dune or sustainability impacts as part of the review.

Council members pressed staff on the scope and timing of consultant work and on whether proposers could submit programmatic "tweaks" to their earlier presentations. Deputy Mayor Drucker and others said they do not expect wholesale overhauls but emphasized that significant changes should be highlighted and made available to the public. "If they make any changes, we will highlight those and you will know. The public will know as well," Lukasick said.

Several council members said the seven‑minute question sessions at the proposers' presentations were insufficient to answer technical questions and asked staff to request clarifications or additional information where necessary. One council member described the decision at this stage as selecting a partner rather than endorsing a final plan: "Let's just find the partner; they can tell us whatever they want to tell us in terms of what their qualifications are to do this job," the council member said.

City Attorney Taylor said the city already has two outside law firms retained for major transactional support and has retained former West Palm Beach city attorney Claudia McKenna for P3 experience; he said additional specialized counsel will be considered as the work progresses.

Council members repeatedly emphasized that if proposers submit materially revised plans (for example, reducing an 8,000-unit option to 5,000 units), that would amount to a new plan that might require additional public presentations and could affect the procurement timeline. Staff said they will highlight any changes and that the ranking process remains the council’s initial step before negotiations and further public engagement.