Why are they so afraid to release the proposals? Why keep them secret? What exactly do they think might happen if the public was allowed to see them?
SUBJECT: 700 & 800 East Washington Avenue RFP Update
DATE: July 1, 2011
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The City of Madison recently issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the redevelopment of properties on the 700 & 800 Blocks of East Washington Avenue. The City is in the process of purchasing these sites and is using the RFP process to solicit interest for the redevelopment of these parcels. More information about the RFP is available at www.cityofmadison.com/business.Developers were asked to submit proposals for the redevelopment of these properties by June 13th. We are pleased by the response to the RFP which resulted in the submission of seven proposals. City staff and a “Selection Committee” of Alders and individuals with development knowledge and experience have been reviewing the submitted proposals for their compliance with RFP requirements and selection criteria. This review included interviews with the developers earlier this week. To date, City staff and the Selection Committee have not publically released information about the submitted proposals to avoid compromising this first step of the proposal review process.
Based on the submitted proposals and interviews, the Selection Committee will furnish the Common Council with a recommendation on which proposal(s) should be selected by the City to move to the next stage of the proposal review process. This stage will be the negotiation of terms by which the City would sell all or a portion of these parcels to the selected developer(s). These terms will need to be approved by the Common Council through a public process. Following approval of these terms, the selected developers will be granted a period of time to finalize their building/site plans and seek appropriate land use approvals. The City’s standard development review process, including Urban Design Commission, will apply to these projects.
These projects will require public review. As such, the area Alders and City staff will host a neighborhood meeting to introduce stakeholders and other interested individuals to the proposals being recommended by the Selection Committee. The date and time of this neighborhood meeting has not been set yet, as the Selection Committee and City staff have not completed their initial review of the submitted proposals. City staff will work with the area Alders to insure that adequate notice is provided regarding the date, time, and location of this meeting once it is scheduled.
