The City is moving toward and is placing greater emphasis on enhancing citywide business corridors including North Beach Town Center, Ocean Terrace, 41st Street, Washington Avenue, Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive, with several neighborhood urban planning studies completed and underway. Both Washington Avenue and Ocean Drive have separate planning discussion concurrently underway exploring how to revitalize the corridors.

Prior to developing any corridor specific concept plans and designs, the City, through this RFQ, sought to obtain qualifications from multi-disciplinary consultant teams to perform a district-wide study that encompasses land use, mobility and economic development from Washington Avenue to Ocean Drive and 5th Street to 17th Street, including Collins Avenue and side streets; and to provide land use, mobility and economic development recommendations for each of the three major corridors (i.e. prioritizing each corridor regarding pedestrian areas, bicycle facilities, transit and vehicles). The recommendations from the study, as adopted by the City Commission, will form the basis for a more detailed concept and design plans for these districts.

RFQ PROCESS
On May 8, 2019, the City Commission approved to issue the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) No. 2019-234-ND for a Land Use, Mobility and Economic Development Study of the Entertainment District. On May 10, 2019, the RFQ was issued. A voluntary pre-proposal conference to provide information to proposers submitting a response was held on May 22, 2019. One addendum was issued. The Procurement Department issued bid notices to 97 companies utilizing www.publicpurchase.com website. 65 prospective bidders accessed the advertised solicitation. RFQ responses were due and received on June 25, 2019. The City received a total of 2 proposals from the following firms: BusinessFlare, LLC, and Zyscovich, Inc.

On June 27, 2019, the City Manager appointed the Evaluation Committee via LTC # 369-2019. The Evaluation Committee convened on July 16, 2019, to consider proposals received. The Committee was comprised of Jose Gonzalez, Director, Transportation Department, City of Miami Beach; Marc Lawrence, Executive Board Member, Washington Avenue Business Improvement District; Bo Martinez, Director, Economic Development Department, City of Miami Beach; Thomas Mooney, Director, Planning Department, City of Miami Beach; Amy Mehu, Special Assistant, Office of the City Manager, City of Miami Beach; and Ceci Velasco, Executive Director, Ocean Drive Association. The Committee was provided an overview of the project, information relative to the City’s Cone of Silence Ordinance and the Government Sunshine Law. The Committee was also provided with general information on the scope of services and a copy of each proposal. The Committee was instructed to score and rank each proposal pursuant to the evaluation criteria established in the RFQ.

The evaluation process resulted in the ranking of proposers indicated in Attachment A, in the following order:
1. Zyscovich, Inc.
2. BusinessFlare, LLC

A summary of firm follows:

Zyscovich, Inc.
According to the information provided by the firm, Zyscovich, Inc. is a world class, 120+ person integrated planning, architecture and interior design firm headquartered in Miami who has been known since 1977 for its award-winning master plans and urban designs. For over 40 years, the firm has created unique, forward-thinking designs and placemaking interventions resulting in transformative and visionary projects that have served to stimulate and attract high quality redevelopment while protecting neighborhoods. The team's level of dedication and expertise has been recognized by the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Architects.

BusinessFlare, LLC
According to the information provided by the firm, BusinessFlare, LLC was created in 2012, in response to the need for smaller cities with limited resources to compete for economic development. BusinessFlareTM is a unique, trademarked approach to economic development that integrates market reality into a local government’s strategic plan, annual budget process and day-to-day operations. The team has extensive experience in economic development, land use planning, mobility, marketing, public engagement, and related fields.

After reviewing each firm’s submissions and the Evaluation Committee’s rankings and commentary, I concur with the Evaluation Committee and find Zyscovich, Inc. to be the best qualified firm for the project. Zyscovich, Inc. assembled a local and national team that can successfully combine land use, and transportation planning, stakeholder engagement, economic development, and multimodal mobility expertise to complete a comprehensive district-wide study of the City’s entertainment district.

I find that Zyscovich, in addition to be a well-qualified firm that has done extensive work with the City and some of its corridors, has put together an world-class team for this engagement that includes top firms such as:

• Gehl (planning and urban design) – Gehl has previously worked with the Mayor’s 41^st Blue Ribbon Committee. I understand the committee has been impressed with the innovative thinking and level of detail that has been provided by Gehl.

• Kittelson (transit and mobility) – Kittleson is a national firm with local offices whose mission is to “transform how communities move.” They have completed work that includes reimagining movement through major thoroughfares, implementing safer, people-friendly street designs, public-private redevelopments to improve transit, and others.

• Lambert & Associates (economic development) – the administration is currently working to engage Lambert, under a separate engagement, to complete an entertainment district revenue/cost analysis. While Lambert has not yet completed its work, staff is impressed with the firm’s approach and methodology to projects.

• Town Square Corp. (programming & branding) – Town Square is a New York based firm that specializes in placemaking. Some of its accomplishments include The High Line and Bryant Park in New York City.

• Raymond Jungles (landscape architecture) – Raymond Jungles is a world-renowned landscape architecture firm. While not the primary focus of the RFQ, it is beneficial to consider, as applicable, the benefits that the natural environment can bring to urban corridors.

• Schwebke – Shiskin & Associates (civil engineering) – Shwebke – Shiskin & Associates is a local engineering firm that is well-versed on many of challenges facing the city with regard to engineering requirements. Again, while not the primary focus of the RFQ, Zyscovich has proactively addressed this important perspective on its team.

Therefore, I recommend that the Mayor and City Commission approve the resolution authorizing the administration to enter into negotiations with Zyscovich, Inc., as the top ranked proposer; further, if the administration is not successful in negotiating an agreement with Zyscovich, Inc., authorizing the administration to enter into negotiations with BusinessFlare, LLC, as the second ranked proposer; and further authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute an agreement upon conclusion of successful negotiations by the Administration.