City Council Meeting Date: November 19, 2019
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Ben Martig, City Administrator
David Bennett, Public Works Director/City Engineer
Title
Discussion of FiftyNorth Phase I Completion Report and Discussion of Phase II NCRC Building Planning.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council discusses the FiftyNorth future planning.
Summary Report:
City Administrator Martig and Public Works Director Bennett have met with Lynne Pederson, FiftyNorth Director, and Patty Jorstad, Chair of FiftyNorth Future Planning Committee, to review a summary of the objectives and findings from Phase 1 planning work. The Phase 1 summary is attached (Attachment 2).
The FiftyNorth Future Planning Committee has identified four objectives to be accomplished as part of the Phase 1 work.
1. Increase the flexibility of our space to allow for quick changes to programming and
members’ needs.
2. Determine the programs wanted in the future to meet members’ needs.
3. Identify gaps in meeting member’s needs in current programming, i.e. transition teams,
referral and information center, and community advocacy.
4. Evaluate staffing structure and capacity to be successful in the work required.
Lynne Pederson will present the findings and recommendation from the Phase 1 study. Overall, the FiftyNorth Future Planning Committee, has identified four phases of work:
1. Fact finding (Phase 1 report).
2. Space design.
3. Capital campaign and partnerships.
4. Construction and reconfiguration.
To kick off Phase 2, City Administrator Martig and Public Works Director Bennett worked with FiftyNorth to prepare a Request for Qualifications (Attachment 3) to find professional services (Architectural and Engineer) to assist with space planning, space programming, and needs at the NCRC. This phase of work will assist in planning for the entire NCRC building and the space that is being vacated by Community Education/Recreation. It will look at what the needs are from current users and potential other users for the spaces in the building and how to best program the existing space. If building spaces is fully programed and additional needs are identified, this process with look at building expansion and cost estimation.
As Phase 2 gets underway, FiftyNorth will be Requesting Qualifications for Professional Services. FiftyNorth will fund and contract with the selected firm. City Staff and FiftyNorth have identified these firms with experience in this scope of services.
• Barker, Rinker, Seacat Architecture
• TSP Architects
• JLG Architects
• 292 Design Group
• ISG
• Wold Architects
FiftyNorth and City staff are recommending a team to review and guide this process. Initial thoughts on the makeup of the team is: City Staff Reps, FiftyNorth President, FiftyNorth Director, NCRC Corp. Representative, and up to four representatives appointed by the Mayor and Confirmed by the City Council, that would include at a minimum one City Councilor.
The proposed project schedule for phase 2 is as follows:
• November 22, 2019 Issue Request for Qualification
• December 20, 2019 Consultant submittal deadline
• January 2020 Consultant interview and selection
• February 2020 - July 2020 Space Planning and Programming, Expansion Option, recommendations complete
As previously discussed with Council, staff is suggesting that the City have much more formal involvement during Phase 2. We believe it will be advantageous to have a close relationship on any architectural design work as well as exploring potential changes in uses for existing or other uses in the facility related to the school district tenants and others potentially relocating along with the Greenvale School project. As a reminder, it is planned for Community Education, Early Childhood Services, Adult Basic Education (ABE), and related meeting rooms on the second floor will be vacated with the changes at the Greenvale Elementary Campus. Head start is anticipated to stay at the NCRC facility. Health Community Initiative (HCI) offices are anticipated to potentially move some or all operations to the Greenvale Campus as well.
The City does have a current management contract with the NCRC Corporation (a local non-profit consisting of the Community Action Center of Northfield, Three Rivers Community Action, Inc., Northfield Senior Citizens, Inc. Northfield Public Schools) that expires the end of December 2019. The existing contractual arrangements were discussed with the Council at the March 12, 2019 work session. However, I will provide a little more background in this memo again as a reminder of these agreements. The services included in the contract includes full management operation services of the building including the following:
- Manage tenant leases (approved by NCRC and City)
- Subcontract with management company (currently Bluewater)
- Marketing for promotions and activities
- Marketing for new tenants if leased space is available
- Scheduling meetings spaces
- Development of an annual operations plan
- Facility maintenance
- Responsibility for utility bills
- Custodial services, grounds, trash removal, and other general operations services
- Collection of rent
- Responsible for NCRC personnel staffing.
Any improvements, alterations, repairs and capital expenditures are the responsibility of the NCRC Corporation under the current contract. They are responsible for maintaining the building in good operating condition. Expenditures for capital improvements to the building and grounds are suggested to be amortized over the life of the improvement to tenants through rents.
Although the NCRC Corporation assumes full responsibility of these lease changes and building alterations, staff is strongly recommending that with such substantive changes and a contract for management set to expire in December that it will be important to work together to explore these changes and also use this time to revisit related agreements. The NCRC Corporation has been looking to city staff for leadership for the past few years on providing guidance on operations despite the contractual responsibilities that are left almost exclusively with the NCRC Corporation.
Existing tenants at the NCRC have discussed amongst themselves to explore their interest in the space at the NCRC going forward over the summer. During this time, staff would propose that they be discussing a potential process to explore interest of the current tenants and possibly other interested parties. Additionally, we will continue to look at all agreements related to the NCRC building as this would be a good time to consider any amendments.
There will be a supplemental powerpoint presentation by FiftyNorth and City staff forthcoming.
Alternative Options:
N/A
Financial Impacts:
N/A
Tentative Timelines:
ü June 18, 2018 - City Council - further discussion on process for NCRC exploration of FiftyNorth Future Planning Committee interests and others.
ü June - September FiftyNorth Future Planning Committee - First Phase
ü 2019 New Greenvale Park Elementary Breaks Ground
• Current - FiftyNorth Phase 1 - Report and Recommendation and Request for Qualifications
• December 20, 2019 - Consultant RFQ submittal deadline
• January 2020 - Interview and Select Consultant
• February 2020 - July 2020 Space planning and programming, building expansion option report complete
• September 2020 New Greenvale Park Elementary Opens
• Summer-Fall 2020 - Existing Greenvale Park Elementary is Remodeled
• 2021 - School District Relocates Early Childhood Education to Old Greenvale Elementary
• 2021 - Additional Space available in NCRC