Town procurement officer recommends five-year Jetty's Beach lease to Sandbar Act LLC

Brian Turbet, chief procurement officer and director of municipal finance for the Town of Nantucket, recommended that the town enter into a five-year lease with Sandbar Act LLC for the Jetty's Beach concession after publicly reviewing the firm's response to the request for proposals during a procurement evaluation meeting called at 1:36 p.m.

Turbet said the procurement office received a single proposal — from "Sandbar Act LLC doing business at Sandbar at Jetty's Beach" — and that the procurement office opened the response publicly "as required under the statute." Deputy Procurement Officer Cindy Sue confirmed the submission met all minimum RFP criteria: "Yes, the minimum criteria was met." Turbet then read the scoring rubric aloud and explained his rankings.

Why it matters: the recommended award would authorize a private operator to run the seasonal concession that includes a restaurant, bar, retail shop, bath house and event venue during the island's busy season. The proposal carries both a guaranteed lease fee and a revenue-share schedule that together determine the town's near-term and longer-term financial return from the site.

Turbet said he scored Sandbar Act LLC "highly advantageous" across plan-of-services, quality control and experience criteria, noting the firm presented a clearly laid-out operational plan for the seasonal period (from the third weekend in May through Columbus Day), demonstrated superior quality-control practices, and showed multi-year experience operating similar concessions — including operation of other leases on the island. He said the firm provided more than five professional and community references that consistently praised its service and community commitment.

On price, Turbet said the proposal offered a first-year lease fee of $200,000, rising to $212,000 in year two, $225,250 in year three, $239,891 in year four and $256,683 in year five, for a five-year total of $1,133,824. He said that total was approximately $450,000 above the RFP's minimum-revenue expectation and that the fee exhibit met or exceeded the RFP's minimum thresholds (the RFP required a first-year minimum of $120,000 with at least 3% annual increases). The proposal also set a revenue-share schedule beginning at 7% in year one and increasing to 8% in year five (a five-year average of about 7.5%).

Turbet said his written recommendation will ask the Select Board to award a five-year lease covering Jan. 1, 2027, through Nov. 15, 2031, and that the town would post the recommendation report on its website once it is prepared. He then moved to adjourn the meeting himself and closed the session.

There was no formal board vote on the lease at this session; Turbet presented the evaluation, announced his recommendation, and said the next step is to forward the recommendation to the Select Board for consideration and potential award.