This contract will provide complete design and construction services of the Empire Parking Garage that will be located on the north side of Montana Avenue between N. 27th Street and N. Broadway.   The selection process formally began with a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) so prospective Design-Build teams could present a Statement of Qualifications.  The City received twelve (12) responses to the RFQ.  Three firms were deemed eligible to receive and respond to the Request for Proposals (RFP) that includes a preliminary cost proposal for design and construction of the garage.   The three teams are Sletten Construction, Andersen Construction and PCL/Watrey.  Proposals were received on September 27, 2012, and were reviewed by a selection team on October 2.  The Andersen team was eliminated from further consideration because its cost proposal was approximately $2.5 million over the stated budget.  A selection team, including Councilman Cromley, interviewed the two remaining teams on October 11 and decided to recommend that Sletten Construction be awarded the design/build garage project .  One advantage of design/build is setting a guaranteed maximum price early with the RFP proposals and final design / cost negotiations prior to the City committing to the full cost for the project.  The budget for the design / build portion of the project is $11,500,000.  If the Council approves the recommendation, staff and OAC, the construction manager, will work with Sletten to develop a final project design and guaranteed maximum price.  The project is being financed with Tax Increment bonds that cannot be sold for several weeks.  The design/build contract will be structured to allow its cancellation if bonds cannot be sold or sold for an acceptable price.  If that occurs, the City will be responsible for paying the design team for the work performed before that date and for any other work committed or completed, such as alley utilities relocation or building abatement/demolition.