Authorize Professional Services Related to the Redevelopment of the City's Former Municipal Center Site

PURPOSE
Authorize Hakanson Anderson to carry out various professional services in preparation for the demolition and site clean up of the City's former municipal center site (often referred to as the "old municipal center site" OMC).

SUMMARY OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
OUTCOME
The outcome of the proposed Hakanson Anderson professional services will be:
BACKGROUND
This case is before the Council as a result of various previous agreements, decisions, and policy direction related to the City's former municipal center site.

• The City vacated the former municipal site (PD and ADMIN) in 2006, when the new Ramsey Municipal Center was constructed in The COR.
• In 2012, the City declared the former municipal center surplus city owned land (please see attached "city owned land" document for background).
• In 2014, after a 1+ year public input process, the City identified the future desired land use for the future municipal center site as residential (please see attached "OMC Study Group Findings Report" for details).
• In 2015, the City entered into a two-phased purchase agreement with NIK, later GS LAND, for the purchase of the former municipal center site (please see attached "NIK/ GS LAND PA" for details).  The first phase closed in 2015.
• In 2015, the City authorized a land-swap agreement with Meadow Creek, a PA Amendment with NIK/GS LAND, and authorized staff to apply for Anoka County HRA dollars for the site clean up and demolition of the former municipal center site (please see attached "Land Swap and Anoka County HRA" document for details).

CURRENT STATUS
Today the city has various formal and informal items to complete related to the future development of the former municipal center site (see below).  This case will begin the process of addressing the first three items.

• Demolition and site clean up of the remaining portions of the former municipal center site.  This action is guided by the City's PA with NIK/GS LAND.
• Demolition and site clean up of the Meadow Creek owned parcel; including completion of a sidewalk connection and concrete apron.  This action is guided by the City's PA Meadow Creek.
• Securing a funding source for demolition and site clean up of the former municipal center site.  To-date, the City has provided staff direction to pursue the Anoka County HRA (Ramsey Account).  However, Anoka County has indicated a need for documentation (bids) showing the cost of work before they are willing to formally commit to funding.
• Policy discussion regarding use of City-owned parcels located adjacent to Nowthen Boulevard (current location of driveway to old municipal center site).  These are the parcels the City picked up in the land-swap agreement with Meadow Creek.  Examples discussion items includes: vehicle access, trail connections, open space, residential use, public utilities, community sign, etc.  The purpose of this case is not to address this item--this will be brought back to the Council in the future.

 

Why Hakanson Anderson?

• Hakanson Anderson is included in the City's "Engineering Pool" per the attached Engineering Master Consulting Agreement executed on January 13, 2012.  The Engineering Pool was implemented to allow the City to directly select engineering firms meeting the City's qualifications for providing engineering services on improvement projects, thereby improving efficiencies in the City's regular work requiring third-party professional engineering services (this agreement removes the need for bidding engineering services with each project).  Per the attached agreement, a Letter of Engagement will be executed with Hakanson Anderson if they are authorized to perform the professional services outlined in the attached Professional Services Contract.  A copy of this contract will also be attached to the Letter of Engagement as Exhibit B fully defining agreed upon services and compensation.  
• Hakanson Anderson is familiar with this site.  They completed an ALTA survey of this site in 2013, to help get the site ready for a potential data center development.  While acting as interim City Engineer for the City of Ramsey in 2013, Hakanson Anderson supported City staff during the in-depth public input process related to the former municipal center site.
• Hakanson Anderson is familiar with the demolition and site clean up process.  They have completed similar work for other communities (i.e. helping with developing bid documents).
• Based on staff experience, Hakanson Anderson is competitively priced.

STAFF NOTES

• The attached professional services contract with Hakanson Anderson is a "not-to-exceed" proposal ($28,000).  Hakanson Anderson will be providing services on an hourly basis.  Hakanson Anderson has indicated they believe they can get this work done for closer to $20,000.  However, depending on how the project actually unfolds (redevelopment/demolition projects naturally have lots of unknowns), and how much assistance City staff needs (especially after a contracts are awarded--during contract administration), room for contingency was considered prudent.

ALTERNATIVES

• ALTERNATIVE 1: authorize Hakanson Anderson to carry out various professional services in preparation for the demolition and site clean up of the City's former municipal center site as outlined in the attached proposal.
• ALTERNATIVE 2: the Council may prefer staff complete a request-for-quotes (RFQ) process for the professional services outlined in this case.  If this was the Council's preference, staff would come back to the Council on 03/22 to authorize said RFQ.
• ALTERNATIVE 3: the Council may prefer staff to complete the professional services outlined in the attached report.  Due to current workload capacity, and the expertise/ experience needed for this type of work, staff does not recommend this alternative.

Engineering Professional Services (purpose of this case)
The professional services contract with Hakanson Anderson would be paid for via land proceeds from the sale of the former municipal center site in 2015 (phase 1, $583,605).  These dollars are currently located in the City's Facilities Fund.  Which, will remain the clearing house for this project, until completion.  The Hakanson Anderson contract is a not-to-exceed $28,000.

Demolition & Site Clean Up Contracts (future case)
The Council has provided staff direction to use the Anoka County HRA (Ramsey Account) to pay for this work (current balance, $994,000).  The very preliminary staff cost estimation for this work is $150,000-$200,000.

Authorize staff to execute the attached contract with Hakanson Anderson to complete various professional services in preparation for the demolition and site clean up of the City's former municipal center site.

MOTION TO:
Authorize staff to execute the attached contract with Hakanson Anderson to complete various professional services in preparation for the demolition and site clean up of the City's former municipal center site.