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Boca Raton council narrows approach to government campus redevelopment; staff revises CBRE contract to flat fee
Summary
Council signaled it wants the Offering Memorandum (OM) to remain high level and to treat responses as prospective 'partners' rather than fixed plans; staff said it changed the proposed CBRE compensation from a broker-commission model to a negotiated flat fee and outlined a schedule targeting an interim agreement by May.
Mayor Singer and councilmembers used a Dec. 9 workshop to refine the city’s approach to soliciting proposals for redevelopment of the government campus, pressing staff to keep the Offering Memorandum high-level and avoid scoring or a separate evaluation committee.
The mayor said the OM "went out" with more detail than intended and urged staff to issue an addendum if necessary to remove language that could be read as mandatory. He framed the process as selecting a potential development "partner" rather than choosing a fixed plan for city facilities.
City Manager Mr. Brown and counsel Mr. Lukasick told the council they had worked with CBRE on contract terms. "We worked with CBRE on developing a flat fee for the contract as opposed to a contract that was built on the Broker's Commission scale," Mr. Lukasick said, describing the change as responsive to council feedback. Staff said CBRE has executed the flat-fee agreement but some details remain under discussion.
Council members debated procedure. Several said they opposed creating a separate selection committee to pre-screen firms and instead preferred staff and an outside consultant to analyze proposals and present the differences for elected officials to evaluate. Council Member Thompson summarized the view: the city is "picking a partner and not so much a plan," and that staff should present proposers' teams and experience rather than apply numeric scoring.
On schedule, staff presented a preliminary timeline that assumes proposers will submit materials by Jan. 9, with an interim agreement anticipated around May. Mr. Lukasick said that after an interim agreement there would be more time to develop a master development agreement and to complete planning, engineering and lease-work necessary to finalize terms.
Council requested that staff circulate a redline of the most current CBRE contract before the next meeting. Members also asked staff to address phasing, how development timing would affect tax-base and CRA timelines, and whether CBRE might offset fees for review of proposals the city previously received. Mr. Brown said staff would consider an extension for proposers’ questions to Dec. 31 to give respondents more time and noted the "cone of silence" would begin Jan. 9 at 3 p.m.
The council did not take a formal vote at the workshop; staff said it would return with contract updates and timeline adjustments for the council to consider at the next meeting.
