DATE: August 22, 2018
TO: Board of Mayor and Aldermen
FROM: Eric Stuckey, City Administrator
Brad Wilson, Project & Facilities Manager
SUBJECT:
title
Approval To Enter In A Professional Services Agreement With The Architect Workshop For The “City Of Franklin City Hall Programming Report” In An Amount of $137,800.00 Regarding The Development Of A New City Hall. (Job Number 2018-010, COF Contract No. 2018-0154). (08/14/18 WS, 08/28/18 WS)
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Purpose
The purpose of this memorandum it to provide information to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA) to consider the approval for the City of Franklin City Administrator and Project Facilities Manager to enter into a Professional Services Agreement regarding developing a City of Franklin City Hall Programming Report regarding a new City Hall facility for the City of Franklin.
Background
Over the years there has been conversations regarding the condition to the existing City Hall and the condition it is in and cost regarding redevelopment and or building a new facility. In order to understand the exercise of doing programming assessment here is a small bit of history. Harpeth Square Mall was developed around 1973 and was anchored by both Caster Knots and the Sears Department Store at each end the facility along with small little mom and pop type units that were between. With the development of other surrounding malls and ways to shop business became slow and eventually the anchoring box stores terminated their lease leaving only a few of the smaller mom and pops. With the building setting mainly empty and the city growing the City of Franklin acquired the old mall around 1980 to 1981 to become The City Hall. Many of the city departments call this tract of property home. Due to the growth of Franklin the City of Franklin Police Headquarters that was busting at the seams moved to a new facility on Columbia Avenue freeing up some space at City Hall. The former PD space though is now being occupied by other departments due to their growth and no other space to place staff. In June of 2004 a needs assessment was performed on the facility as the thought at that time was to look to either do a major remodel or a new facility. The report showed that the facility was dealing with a bad roof system, poor layout of spaces and older mechanical systems that were starting to fail from 25 plus years of use. In 2007 a request for qualifications and proposals for a new City Hall Development were obtained from vendors and Crosland Development was selected to work with the city on a possible private / public partnership. An exercise was developed along with a city charrette to gather ideas from the community around 2008. The ideas that came about from that were to develop on the site a hotel and City Hall facility to the point that budgetary numbers were developed. Late in 2008 to 2009 the local economy started falling as other cities around Franklin started feeling the effects of the market correction. Due to what would be called the Great Recession (Wikipedia) thoughts of development and or a new facility and a partnership as well were dissolved.
Approximately three to four years ago the Facilities budget started carrying a line item for architectural assessment services when it was felt that a time was right to consider. The current facility continues to deal with growing problems regarding staff and what is needed to help operate and communicate the needs of Franklin. With that comes the need of trying to find space within to develop for additional staff or reconfiguration of current office spaces. In perspective trying to develop space is not as hard as trying to keep a dry roof over everyone’s heads. The roof has exceeded its warranty and life expectancy and we continue to deal with leaks after minor rain events. Even the assessment of 2004 discusses the poor condition of the roof. We now carry a line item in the budget to help with patches that are needed almost monthly. A recent quote to replace the roof and installation that is deemed detrimental is between 1.5 and 1.8 million dollars from a NJPA vendor. With the roof leaks, we deal with the aftermath of the water regarding wet insulation, wet ceiling tiles and watching for the growth of any mold within. Staff works very hard to try and patch or repair any leaks that become active. The roof is the major culprit the water and sewer services probably fall right behind. Lines in certain areas constantly must be cleared out from materials that get entangled with the old cast iron pipes that run under city hall. At times on Mondays to possibly Wednesdays some offices should deal with water that has some brownish color due to the age of the galvanized water lines. City Hall is also not an economical facility to operate with its antiquated mechanical and electrical systems. Over the last few years lighting systems have become cheaper regarding changing light bulbs to LED and we take advantage of that. Under grants with TVA lighting systems in part of City Hall have been replaced and the city has received a few thousand dollars in return for the major funds that have been spent to try and upgrade. The floors that are within the facility are held down by mastic that has history of containing an asbestos fiber. There finally comes a time that you decide to either continue to feed a dying monster or begin anew.
In July of 2017 a group was developed to start discussions on how a new facility could be developed within the existing site. This group was made up with individuals from the planning, engineering, building and neighborhood services, facilities to administrative personnel. Our scope for such assessment included:
1) Space Need
a. Current
b. 10 to 50 years in comparison to peer communities
c. Orientation
2) Existing Bldg. Usability
a. Current Condition
b. Maintenance
c. Cost of operation - both short and long range
d. Looming major work dollars
3) Redevelopment Opportunity and Cost.
4) Range of cost per square foot?
In February of this year an RFQ (request for qualifications) was advertised and the city received information from eight (8) respondents. Of those eight (8) respondents three (3) of those being Bauer Askew Architecture, The Architect Workshop and Centric Architecture, Inc. were asked to come in for a formal interview. All three were excellent choices but at the end The Architecture Workshop was the one that the team felt had the best experience in what the city is looking for regarding an assessment. The Architect Workshop team comprises of James Kennon (principal) who has past work experience with the city and has submitted information regarding the past RFQ’s for City Hall and was the lead architect at the end on the COF PD Headquarters project, James McClaren (senior principal) brings to the team many years in regards to design regarding City Halls, Police Headquarters, Town Halls and Public Safety Centers along with Randall Gross who is principal of Randall Gross Development Economics and will assist in giving an idea to cost for such a project. A layout of their work is to what he city team is asking for is as follows:
A. Data Gathering / Programming Report
The process will be informed by a series of conversations with stake holders along with a sequence of staff questionnaires, staff interviews and reviews with City leadership. In addition to the information provided by staff and leadership, the teams experience in defining not only the space allocations and programming for the identified spaces, but the often underestimated nevertheless necessary functional support spaces which will result in a total space assignment that is realistic and workable. This process will lead to a final report that has been vetted and reviewed sufficiently before becoming a public document.
• Identify and delineate individual space needs, set area allocation and determine specific space
requirements
• Calculate staff growth and space demands within the 20-year time frame.
• Define support space allocations for hallways, lobby areas, meeting spaces, break rooms, storage,
filing, restrooms, copy and printing centers, storm shelters, and other requirements for City
departments as identified through the process.
• Compile total space requirements for individual departments and for each position based upon
employee position types or job families for each City department (Excel spreadsheet format)
• Determine special space requirements for individual departments, such as permit/plans review
centers (Planning & Sustainability, Engineering, and Building and Neighborhood Services) and break
out spaces for designated areas such as Administration, Finance, HR, Fire, IT, private offices, and
records storage spaces.
• Develop requirements for a City Boardroom area/meeting space, City Court Space including
modern public address and multimedia technology
• Determine the emergency power requirements for City Hall facilities
• Consider perceived future needs of the various City departments
• Develop space standards to be applied across the entire organization
• Determine parking requirements to accommodate staff, customers, and public participation at
community meetings/events.
B. Public Input
This will be meetings with limited groups of local stakeholders to allow the design team to have a perspective of City Hall from direct neighbor insights and concerns which could impact the space needs analysis. These meetings would be scheduled with predetermined members outside of city hall within in the downtown community that use and or share an interest with the site.
C. Analysis
Would include team and client meetings to discuss interim reports on findings along with a final presentation of findings and recommendations. There will also be an existing conditions assessment of the current site and structure and what is driving the space requirements. Also, discussions of external use and income generating opportunities, ROI analysis and recommendations.
D. Data Synthesis
This will be the deliverable portion of the programming where as a spreadsheet with the summarizing of findings and date gathering from the team meetings and public stake holder input.
Specific Tasks
• Define implementation steps and milestones necessary to fulfill the findings of the programming assessment
• Identify future needs of the 20-year time frame in terms of excess square footage
E, The Game Plan
• Summary of findings from The Architect Workshop, Jim McClaren and Randall Gross in both a written and visual presentation.
• Stacking diagrams of the overall site.
• Documentation showing space needs, methodology and trends influences.
• Designer Guidelines, illustrated space standards, square footage spreadsheets, adjacency diagrams, growth milestones, demographic and technology needs.
• Economic Evaluation of proposed renovation/redevelopment, and new construction options,
including economic feasibility of public/private development and lease options
Financial Impact
The funds to pay for the assessment are currently covered in the 2019 Facilities Departments Capital budget of $ 250,000.00.
The cost of the assessment is $137,800.00 and is broken down as follows:
Data Gathering $ 40,550.00
Public Forum for Input $ In Abv.
Data Analysis $ In Abv.
Data Synthesis $ 21,600.00
The Game Plan $ 75,650.00
Total $ 137,800.00
Recommendation
rec
Approval for the City to enter into a Professional Services Agreement with the The Architect Workshop for Needs Assessment regarding the City of Franklin City Hall.