The North Shore Park Restroom and concession area project consisted of the design of a new restroom with a small concession facility at the north side of the park along 73rd street.
City staff prepared a plan locating the new facility near the ballfields. The proposed location would have required certain variances, and ultimately was disapproved by the Design Review Board (DRB).
A new location was identified within the park between the two existing buildings (the tennis center and the warehouse) at the east side of the park (Exhibit A), west of the tennis courts. This new location was favorable as it is more centrally located and would not require variances or DRB review.
City staff reviewed the project with stakeholders, and as a result of the new location and tennis center needs, additional scope was added. Added scope requested by stakeholders included, a new concession area similar to a café, new outside terrace area to be implemented on the east side of the building to serve as a viewing area for the tennis courts, an outside area facing the park and an internal connection between the existing tennis center and the future concession building.
For the design of the project, with an established construction budget of $650,000, the City engaged Glavovic Studio as the design consultant. As part of the design development and construction document process, the consultant provided an estimate of probable construction cost in the amount of $638,176, including LEED certification, although not required per code.
The project was advertised in June 2019 for the selection of the contractor through the City’s procurement process (ITB). Numerous potential bidders accessed the online bid documents, and 7 companies attended the non-mandatory pre-proposal meeting. Despite significant interest in the project, on July 23rd, 2019 the City received a single bid in the amount of $1,498,025, far exceeding the construction budget amount.
The bid was rejected by the City Manager, as it exceeded the budget amount. Subsequently, City staff met with various contractors to review the project cost and determine the major driving factors for the cost overruns. There was a general consensus among the companies that the facility, as designed would exceed the established construction budget. Based on this, additional funds were requested for FY20, but ultimately were not allocated for this project.
In order to move forward and in consideration of the cost of the design and the high demand for restrooms at the park, City staff developed a set of minimum requirements for the new facility. Subsequently, staff met with stakeholders and presented these minimum facility requirements to the Parks and Recreational Facilities Advisory Board (Board). The Board and stakeholders agreed to support the facility with the reduced requirements, allowing the design of the facility to be value engineered and redesigned to bring down the cost. Since the proposal received far exceeded the established construction budget, and in accordance with the contract for design and engineering services, the consultant commenced the re-design at no cost to the City.
The minimum facility requirements include the following:
• Restrooms to retain the user capacities as originally proposed (approx. 500 SF with 3 stalls for women and 3 stalls for men)
• Restroom access control to be a standard roll-up door
• Project is to provide an enclosed, unfinished, airconditioned space for future development as a Café area, with windows to match the existing tennis facility in lieu of the originally proposed storefront system (approx. 1,000 SF)
• Eliminate the viewing platform at the tennis courts
• Reduced outside area facing the park
• Internal connection between the café area and existing tennis center is optional
• ADA ramp to remain existing, or modified as little as needed
• Redesign the building structure, to a more simple and economical design
• Eliminate the requirement for LEED Certification but keep resiliency elements in the design
The Parks and Recreational Facilities Advisory Board issued a motion supporting the above-mentioned minimum requirements, and it was distributed in the attached LTC #064-2021 (Exhibit B).
On April 21, 2021 the City Commission referred the North Shore Park Restroom and concession area project to the Finance and Economic Resiliency Committee (FERC) and to the Neighborhood and Quality of Life Committee (NQLC).
In consideration of the revised scope, and current market conditions, staff estimates the total project budget required to be approximately $1,712,550. The current approved total project budget is $1,001,000.
On May 21, 2021 the North Shore Park Restroom valued engineered scope and additional funding was discussed at the FERC. As a result, a request was presented to the Committee on the June 18th, 2021 FERC Budget briefing meeting to fund an additional $400,000 in FY22 and $312,000 in FY23.
The Administration recommends approval of the new Value Engineered scope for the project and that additional funding be requested through the FY 2022 Capital Budget process.