Common Council - Regular Meeting

here today for the purposes of meeting notes. Um, I'm just going to do roll call and then I'll I'll uh turn it over to one of you to actually open the meeting and you can decide which one of you actually wants to do that. So, Will Allen present. Jeff Lewis present. Jim Weisman, present. Thank you. That is all three of our technical review committee members. If one of you would open it. Uh

yeah, we're here to review the uh proposal for the um uh Wake County uh convention center uh with the city of Gary. Um so yeah, we've uh got a submission that we're going to review together and score.

Just to recap our process so far, you remember that we met last year to issue a request for qualifications. That was an open process. When we uh received our responses to that qualification packet, we received one bid package from AECOM Hunt, AECOM design team and uh also uh including powers and suns on that. The design build state statute requires that whenever we receive one proposal, we need city council approval to issue them a request for proposals. Last month, the city council approved that process to issue one proposal. We sent them a proposal packet along with a draft AIA contract for a progressive design build contract. And um now we are here. We are in receipt of their qualitative package which was due by 400 pm today. And tomorrow the board of works will be opening their sealed price proposal. We will score the document today and then we need to um turn in that score to board of works and what they will do is divide the score by the price in order to get the final best and final price.

I understand this is only one but the process is still the same. So that is why we are here today. So with that, I'll take a couple moments and just go through uh their proposal. We've got it up here on the screen. In the request for proposals, we asked for them to hit certain criteria. Um they had to submit a an AIA contract. They needed to submit a concept design, an operations, maintenance, and long-term durability statement. community and minority firm participation commitment and um we ask for them to follow the instructions. So uh we'll score against that specific criteria. So with that let's um get into their executive summary. The team that has submitted is um AECOM Hunt with a joint venture to Powers and Suns uh Barbara Holder Consulting which is a certified MBEWBE company and AECOM. AECOM just serves as the designer even though AEO Hunt is the contractor. They share a name. They are actually two separate separate companies. So, AEOM Hunt is one is an entity all by itself.

Yes. Okay. Know that. Okay. They um as you know in their request for qualifications, that's how they got this far. I'm going to turn this off so you can maybe see a little bit bigger. How's that for you, Will? Perfect.

Uh they have built 42 convention centers across the nation. um and 35 million square feet of con convention center square foot um and a total uh portfolio of 11 billion of con convention center. So we saw this sheet when we did qualifications so we know that they are there. Then they um submitted their AIA document. Uh I am uh also in receipt of that AIA document. We have a couple months, not a couple months, a couple weeks to negotiate this, but we certainly appreciate that they have submitted their um initial comments on the AIA document. They have also submitted I'm just going to you know, we'll highlight like one thing here. So like um you know they they've provided red lines which in like 1.11 the owner's requirements for subcontractor pro procurement. We presented some documents then they're adding some additional language underneath that. I have uh will be sharing this uh with the legal team and we'll continue contract negotiations on on that. They have submitted uh their certificate of insurance and shity letter. I have brought that along with me. If uh I'll just pass it around so that you can see that.

So these these criterias what we've gone through so far are all underneath the response criteria and format of the AIA document where it is the actual contract the certificates of insurance, the letter of charity. So that is uh this first section underneath your score sheet. They have a total points available of 30 for this section. I've broken down some a layout of how you could score it. Um 30 would be excels in this area. 20 points would be meets criteria. 10 below standard and zero fails. Of course, you could, you know, assign them 12 if you want, but just to give you that liyker scale there for reference.

Do we have like the ability to maybe alter it? Like you get points if you submitted one and if you didn't, you get zero. Is that something that we could Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you could do Absolutely. This is totally up to you. Like, if they submitted it and they've got everything, 30 points. If they didn't, zero points. Totally up to you. Seems to make sense for this for this one because it's Yeah. Either either you either have it or you don't. So, Yep. Okay. Yep.

The next criteria is conceptual design. This is a little bit unique um because in your packet you'll see that in the proposal we included design criteria uh and thank you to Shai Patterie for helping us pull this together because um it was a unique situation. AECOM was a part of the they were on the team when we submitted to the Lake County Commissioners and a part of our commissioner package was a design. Um, but state statute will not allow you to have the submitter be the design criteria developer. However, our design criteria developer can be a member of our technical review committee. So Jeff Lewis at Shy Hatterley totally uh stepped up for us and we really appreciate you doing that.

In um the design criteria that we submitted uh they had criteria for exhibit hall uh square footage, ballroom square footage, breakout meeting rooms, um the auxiliary spaces. We even got into details around design criteria around elevators, fire safety, technology, infrastructure, life safety, circulation and site. And then um just general notes around our finish quality uh and of course always making sure that we attempt to reach sustainable goals. So um as a part of this package then they had to submit a concept design. This probably looks very familiar because they actually had already produced a concept design, but it really is affirmation of what we are trying to seek and a continuation of what the Lake County commissioners asked for us to produce. Uh so we are continually um we will continue to push our design team to meet those standards and the commitments that we made and work them up against the budget that we have. So they have submitted a concept site plan, a programming space, an exhibit hall is shown here for 40,000 square ft. And on our design criteria, it says approximately 40,000 sellable square feet. Ballroom 18,000 square ft. And on our design criteria, we have approximately 17,000 square ft of sellable space. So um those were the two only areas where we had specific square footages and they've noted here on the program how they can achieve that. Then they've also highlighted uh some site features which um starts to anticipate

circulation. They've provided a floor plan uh for the first floor and the second floor as well as uh the roof which if the budget were to allow potentially this could be they're suggesting maybe a outdoor rooftop deck or um a bar, a prep kitchen, some restrooms up here. They've made mention of that and uh where it could be located on the roof. I will note that that these roof amenities when we submitted to the Lake County commissioners, these were options in the budget because we realize that this is going to be a very tight budget. But again, creativity and having a dialogue around these things is is important. conceptual elevations. They've provided an aerial aerial re um overview um and a nice perspective of how the building could look. Again, this is um this mimics what was submitted to the county and the same uh elevation images that were a part of the county package. Um, and then they've also went a step beyond and provided some renderings of what those spaces could look like, especially from the stair entry and maybe what the building could look like in the evening. They've done a daylight study that they have submitted in the project and uh then they've submitted a a project narrative. Uh this narrative discusses architectural vision, site integration, functional flexibility, sustainable commitment and community focus. All of which speaks to what we asked for them to submit in in the package.

They have spoken a little oops I sorry about that. They have spoken a little bit about the building envelope uh specifically the front facade and the back of house. How are they going to manage food services, the roof system um and how uh structurally we can manage uh this this facility. I'm happy to if I'm touching highlights so if you have any details on any questions here. They've um also in their project description indicated material codes which is comes down to structural steel uh load performances and things like that. Um they've highlighted the building code risk category. This is a risk category three. This is due to the large number of occupants. So that's why it would uh be in that category. Um they've started to talk about uh foundation system obviously geotechnical borings. Uh we will need to do that and so that what they're talking here is that uh we'll be working with a consultant to do the geotechnical borings to make sure that we have a foundation system that supports such a large facility. floor systems, roof systems. Um, and then they get into MEP. It's talking about um air handling, um, how they're going to zone the different areas and the air distribution, uh, and then building automation and controls, all of which are going to be, uh, pretty important for, uh, efficient operations for this facility. They've discussed a heating and cooling plant uh for their heating uh and cooling systems. So, air cooled chillers

uh and gas fired boilers are the two types of systems they're proposing here. They're going to have a dedicated outdoor air system. They're going to have specific exhaust systems in their restroom and kitchen facilities, janitor closets, power distribution. Uh they are anticipating a medium voltage utility feed for this uh project. I have already started conversations separately with NIPCO in anticipation for this build. So sometimes we have lead time. So once uh this project is awarded, NIPCO will be put in into contact with their MEP team MEP time. We can talk about schedule. I know that's one of the requirements here in this package. So talk about schedule. So then they talk about lighting and power distribution um emergency egress lighting all which are required by by code telecommunications plumbing sanitary uh sewer systems natural gas I think the short short to shorten it up they've they've included MEP uh which is mechanical electrical plumbing technology and how they're how they're going to handle those systems.

So that is all underneath your conceptual design and how they're going to approach uh those those systems. And I'm like I mentioned I'm happy to speak to any of those things on the sustainability. Uh they mentioned that they anticipate designing to the lead silver uh criteria uh which features uh energy recovery systems, demand controlled ventilation, submetering uh for major energy uses and water conserving uh fixtures. And then they have also noted that they will um seek out opportunities for solar and um EV charging to set up for future EV charging systems.

Cool. Any questions on that section? Nope. Pretty detailed. Okay. Yep. Then we've got operations, maintenance, and long-term durability. They've made statements around um recognizing that there are public floors and then there are back of house durability. They are different types of materials. One is going to be carpet, one is going to be hard surface.

Uh then uh they've talked about wall protection. You know, think about the metal kicks on the bottom of a door. They've uh mentioned things like this considerations to serve uh conserve energy uh during operations um and highlighting an entire page towards sustainability and minimizing energy consumption. Looks like they've already uh started doing some early modeling and that would be your criteria around operations maintenance and long-term durability. They do have a concept schedule. Uh looks like we are looking at a notice to proceed on May 15th which does fall in line with what we are anticipating. Notice to proceed means that we've negotiated that AIA contract. June 14th uh they have um you know in design build we can start construction and design at the same time. So, uh, they plan on starting some of that early, uh, due diligence items like geotechnical, probably site clearing. Can

you're saying within a month they're talking about something

construction starting and that's probably gets down to site clearing uh, so that they can start uh, moving then uh, then they are anticipating a uh, June 29 of substantial completion. So, uh, in my conversations with them and shown on this schedule, they'll be working on design, uh, for 12 months and then they have a solid two years of of building construction after the design is done, but they'll start this early um, clearing and things like that. So, a three-year project and then they've broken it out by discipline.

That's great.

Y uh this project is is in partnership with the state of Indiana and the redevelopment authority. Uh I'm sorry. The region well redevelopment authority the RDA locally here in northwest Indiana is serving as our uh partner in this project and they will be managing fiscally how that will uh paying all the bills. So bills will go directly to the RDA uh for this project and as a part of our conversations with the RDA we had asked for a payout schedule of what what that would be. So they've provided a schedule of how they think invoices could work and then their work plan uh for to include community and minority firms. So um I believe this is the exact same section that we saw under qualifications because I recognize the images and the format.

It's just a a reinstatement of who we see now. Um their design their subcontractors we asked for their uh subcontractors listed are DLZ an MBE cine little and a WBE they would uh food service programming

um GGLD which is a WBE their lighting design uh GPS consulting engineers and MBE that's uh structural engineering services AES advanced engineering services will prov provide uh geotechnical they're an MBE Robinson engineering will provide surveying and permitting uh for the project and design 27 technology acoustics which is also a WBE will provide technology and acoustic engineering very important for a convention center and then of course this is a project uh with um AECOM Hunt Powers Powers and Sons Barbara Holder Consulting and AE ECOM. So, uh that is a very quick overview. I'm happy to give you additional details, but I know we were so um if you are okay, I would just like for you to read out your score. Uh that way, uh we can put those on record as a part of the meeting minutes. You can do it collectively or individually, however you want to do that.

I'll I'll share mine. Um I didn't see any any reason to to reduce any of the points available uh based on what we what they submitted. So I I gave him a perfect score um 100. So 30 20 20 10.

Okay. I would say the same thing, Corey. After reviewing what we've seen today and what we've seen previously, they've met the requirements, they've done everything that was requested. There was some other, as you know, in the past some concerns by uh aesthetically with the landscaping things. They've addressed that. So, my score is perfect as well. 30 20 20110. Uh my total score is 90. The only area where I deducted points was in the community minority firm participation commitment. And the reason for that is uh I I didn't see any um like internal like city um commitments u in order to get uh businesses that are based in the city of Gary directly involved with the project.

Good. Thank you. I will be make sure to address that as we go through contract negotiations. Well, with that that concludes our business today. So, if you all had further discussion or you want if you want to adjourn, then you're happy to adjourn. Wonderful. We're good. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate. Good luck. Congratulations. Thank you.

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