JACKSON COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS

EVENTS & CONFERENCE CENTER

PROJECT

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES

RECOMMENDATION

Design/construction of a

new events & conference

center (develop year

around meeting and

events/ exhibition space)

Projects Being Proposed

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Construction of a 30,000 to 35,000 square foot structure to

provide indoor, year around, events space for activities. Uses

will include flat shows; trade shows; conferences; education

events; wedding receptions; arts, entertainment & concert

events; and other functions that require spaces for small,

medium, and large groups of people. The center will also

provide customer service and office space for the Jackson

County Fair staff and the Jackson County Parks and Recreation

Department.

Banquet style space to seat a minimum of 500 guests.

A kitchen space appropriate to service a minimum of 500

guests.

20,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space for events programming

that can be divided into a minimum of four separate smaller

spaces to accommodate a variety of event sizes and needs.

Landscape and parking improvements surrounding the

structure that will enhance the surrounding downtown area

along Ganson Street and the Grand River.

Current

Future

Investment Cost to Support Project Construction

Events Center Structure $4,000,000

Design, GC, Fees 905,985

Furniture, Fixtures, Equipment 600,000

Landscaping 75,000

Circulation, Paving, Parking 300,000

Soils Testing & Remediation 119,015

Total Investment Cost $6,000,000

FUNDING SOURCES - How will the Project Be Funded

Source Amount

Private Sector Investment $4,000,000

County Issued Capital Improvements Bond $4,000,000*

(Tax Delinquent Revolving Fund will fund annual debt service)

Total Project Construction Revenues $8,000,000

Total Investment Phase 1 Improvements $8,000,000

Balance (County General Fund neutral) $ 0

*Bond amount includes future track removal project

Capital Improvements Bond Details

Projected Terms:

Borrowing Period – 20 years

Anticipated Borrowing Rate – 4%

Annual Debt Service Payment - $290,871

Total Payments Over 15 Years - $5,817,412

Source Funding Debt Service Payments – County Tax Delinquent Revolving Fund

The terms as detailed above would have NO negative impact on the

County’s general operating budget and therefore would not impact the

delivery of other county services.

Projected Construct Schedule for the New Events & Conference Ctr.

Date Initiated

1. Issued Request for Proposals for Design/ Build Services Sept. 1, 20172. Opened proposals/ staff begin review & evaluation documents October 12, 20173. Held interviews with most qualified/ highest rated proposers/ firms November 7, 20174. Review Team finalized recommended firm to provide design/ build services, November 15, 20175. Present recommendation to Fair Board for approval December 5, 20176. Present recommendation to County Commission for approval January 2, 20187. Final Approval of design services/ phase I design-build contract January 16, 2018

8. Start design process - define building program/ space allocation January 20, 2018 9. Site Soil Testing/ Environmental Review of Site January 20, 201710. Prepare Schematic Design (design concepts are developed/ tested) February 20, 201811. Begin Design Development Phase/ Final Design is developed April 20, 201812. Updated cost estimates for construction are developed May 15, 201813. Negotiate a final Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) for construction

Finalize a construction contract with the CM/ BuilderPrepare/ submit staff report requesting approval of a constructioncontract / authorization to sell bonds June 1, 2018

14. Study Session: Design & Construction Estimate Presented to County Commission June 5, 2018Review “Guarantee Maximum Price” Contract - CM Firm.

15. Agencies & Affairs Committee/ GMP contract approval/ authorization to sell bonds June 11, 201816. Full Board of County Commissioners

GMP Construction contract approval/ final authorization to sell bonds June 19, 201817. CM Begin development of construction drawings/ construction packages June 20, 201818. Begin submitting first packages of construction drawings to City for July 15, 2018

Review/ permitting19. Ground breaking/ construction begins August 15, 201820. Final occupancy permit/ new events & conference ctr. is opens August 1, 2019

The “Design Build” team selected to lead

the new Events & Conference Ctr. Project

will be acting as the CM @ Risk. The firm

will be the construction manager of the

project. They will coordinate the work of

a great number of different trades and

sub-contractors performing the actual

construction of the new structure. These

sub-contracts will most likely come from

the local market, if available to do the

work, creating employment for local

residents. Keeping the trades and

construction work as local as possible will

be a priority of Jackson County and the

Design Build Team we select. The

Construction Management Firm will not

be doing the actual building of the

structure.

The Construction Management Firm will

hold all of the sub-contractor contracts

and will assume all risk for quality

workmanship and payment of contractors.

They will be required to properly bond

and insure the entire construction process

through the final construction and

warranty stages of the project.

What is Design Build and CM @ Risk?

Selection Process

Design and Construction Management Firm

Internal Staff Review Team

Jeff Hovarter, County Parks Director

Denise Owens, County Fair Manager

Rusty Wellman, County Facilities Project Manager

Mark Vysoky, County Parks Planning & Maintenance Manager

Kyle Lewis, County Parks Facilities & Events Operations Manager

Jack McCloughan, County Parks Maintenance Supervisor

Chris Bolt, Director Jackson County Department of Transportation

Design/ Construction Manager Selection Process

Eight Firms turned in proposals in response to the RFP:

*Wieland Construction

*Frederick Construction

*Acquest Realty

*Laux Construction

*Braun Construction Group

*Phoenix Contractors

*RW Mercer

*Rockford Construction

Evaluation Criteria for Design/Build Selection (The Internal Staff Review Team evaluated the initial proposals, response

to the request for additional information, and information shared during each firm’s interview, when considering/ rating each

firm. The following criteria were used in considering each firms response).

1. Firm Experience in Event and Conference Center design & construction.

a. Do the architect and the construction manager have prior experience in event center projects?

b. Has the team done these projects together?

c. What similar experiences do they have? What can their experience bring to JCP to make our process

and facility amazing?

d. Do they have processes in place to complete a Design/Build project with the team they have

proposed?

2. Fees and schedule quoted for the project.

a. The architectural phase I and phase II plus the preconstruction, CM fees and General Conditions

needed to be analyzed, ranked and compared to each other in order to properly compare them on

an equal playing field.

b. Placing the selected four finalist and placing all of their fees and general conditions in a spreadsheet

gave the selection committee the ability to compare “side-by-side” how each proposal compared to

the others.

c. Items such as length of the construction, inclusion of insurances and bonding allowed the committee

to truly compare the proposals fairly.

3. Total Costs

a. Phase I Fees

b. Phase II Fees

c. CM Fees

d. Pre-construction Fees

e. General Conditions

f. Geo tech and soil testing costs

g. Performance and Payment Bond costs

5. Strength of the Team

a. How did the architect and the CM fit together and what other groups did the CM bring to the table

to form the team? Did they use outside resources or provide everything “in-house”.

b. Who was the lead in each group. Were the team members a good fit with the County team.

c. Did the committee have confidence that the team would achieve the goals of the County to deliver

the event center on time and within budget.

6. Project Concepts

a. Did the proposal deliver a concept design that conveyed that they have an understanding of what

the project entails and what the goals of the County are.

b. Did they give thought to the concept presented for surrounding landscape, buildings, topography,

watershed and fairground functionality?

c. Did they give effort to understanding the internal functions stated for uses in the center?

7. RFP requirements & Presentation Quality

a. Did they fulfill the requirements of the RFP with their proposal?

b. Did they present in a concise and understandable way? Did the team fit well together

4. Risk evaluation and financial strength of the team.

a. Each CM was asked to provide their bonding ability and capacity as part of their proposal.

b. By evaluating the bonding limits and the rates that each firm quoted, we could properly

determine which firms were capable of protecting the County while providing the best cost for

premium.

c. The firms that are capable of bonding the whole project can offer benefits to the local bid

market by creating bid packages in a way that allows local subcontractors the opportunity to bid

the work by covering them under the overall bond, by writing smaller scopes and opening the

project up to more/ smaller Jackson companies.

Each firm was placed in a spreadsheet and rated for the criteria

stated.

A score was assigned to each category based on the information

received and the firms were ranked according to their score.

General conditions for each proposal were place in the spreadsheet .

The apparent gaps in the GC’s were evaluated and appropriate

equalizers were applied to compare the GC’s fairly to each other.

Fees, general conditions, pre-construction, geo tech and bonding costs

were put in the spreadsheet to determine the actual costs for each

firm to complete the project in accordance with the RFP.

The committee selected the top four firms for interviews and another

scoring was completed after the interviews.

Design and Construction Manager

Recommendation.

Based on the Results of the Evaluation Process the Staff

Review Team is Recommending the team of Rockford

Construction and Progressive a.e. to lead the Design and

Construction Management of a new events and conference

center on the county fairgrounds.

The recommendation is support by the following

information:

Rockford Construction has the most experience building events & conference centers

Rockford and Progressive a.e. (the architect) are the most experienced project

team, having completed over 100 projects together, including event centers projects

The strongest interview connection and apparent staff to facilitate the project

The strongest technology both in the office and in the field to support the project

They had the strongest apparent project manager of any of the teams

The strongest bonding capacity ($200 million) and the highest volume of annual work

With their strength financially and through their bonding capacity, they provide the

County with the best risk protection in completing the project

Rockford had the best rating for insurance and the best bond premium of any of the

proposals. Their bond price was $37,500 compared to $60,000 up to $120,000 for the

other firms. These are direct dollars of savings to the County.

Rockford best demonstrated the ability and capacity to write project scope work in smaller

units thereby opening up more opportunity for local subcontractors to participate in the

project. Rockford’s excellent bonding capacity covering all of the subcontractor’s also

increases the opportunity for more local contractor participation.

Rockford’s size as a company gives them purchasing power in the acquisition of building

materials and products and the ability to pass that pricing on to local successful

subcontractors. This will lower the County’s cost of construction allow us to get more value

out of our dollars invested.

Rockford had the lowest stated construction management fee at 2.25%

Rockford had the lowest combined evaluation fees in the summary spreadsheet after making

the adjustments for months of construction, insurance premiums, bonding premiums and GC

modifications.

The final adjusted or comparable costs for the top firms as summarized in the attached

spreadsheet are:

Rockford Construction $905,985

Wieland Construction $949,110

Frederick Construction $958,730

RW Mercer Company $1,051,600

ROCKFORD CONSTRUCTION AND PROGRESSIVE A.E.

INTRODUCTION

DESIGN BUILD APPROACH

Rockford Construction and Progressive AE share

an extensive history of successfully completing

more than $220 million in projects together including six Design Build

efforts. They offer the most experienced team approach and understanding

of how best to work together to achieve the client’s goals.

Rockford Construction and Progressive AE - shared project experience

includes the following successfully completed projects:

• Fulton Place – Apartments/Retail

• Hillsdale College - Searle Conference Center

• Hillsdale College - Simpson Hall

• Kawasaki - Grand Rapids R&D Facility

• Meijer - Bridge Street Market (Bridge & Stocking)

• Grand Rapids Art Museum

• 35 Oakes Barfly Buildout

• Aquinas College - Student Housing

• Blue Cross Blue Shield (86 Monroe)

• Grand Rapids Community College - Sneden Hall

• Grand Rapids Community College - Learning Center

• Hillsdale College - McIntyre Hall

• Hillsdale College - Phillips Auditorium

• Mary Freebed YMCA

• Mercy Health – The Shoppes

• Mercy Health Wound Clinic

• Southeast YMCA

• St. John Vianney

• St. Michael’s

TO: Agencies and Affairs Committee

Board of County Commissioners

FROM: Jeff Hovarter, Parks Director

SUBJECT: Fairgrounds Events & Conference Ctr. / Selection of the Design Build Team

DATE: December 11, 2017

Motion Requested

A motion to accept a design-build proposal for services from Rockford Construction in the amount of

$182,600 to execute Phase 1 design of a new events & conference center; the overall fees and

general conditions for project development not to exceed $905,985; and upon completion of phase 1

design, authorizing the County Administrator to negotiate a final guaranteed maximum price with

Rockford Construction to complete the construction of the events & conference center with the

overall project costs not to exceed $6,000,000.

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