Developers make their pitches for new parking garage

Five developers seeking the contract to build a new downtown parking garage made their pitches to the Bradenton City Council on Tuesday, marking the beginning of the downtown’s transformation by the end of 2018.

The $17 million Spring Hill Suites by Marriott could begin construction across from city hall by early spring. As part of the development agreement, the hotel requires 100 parking spaces, which spurred the initial discussions on a parking garage last year. In the Request for Proposal, the city outlined a completion date for the garage no later than December 2018, the estimated completion time of the new hotel.

Also expected to begin construction within the next year are the estimated $12.5 million expansion of the South Florida Museum and the $5 million renovation of Twin Dolphin Marina. The Bradenton Downtown Development Authority also has released a RFP for a streetscaping project from 11th to 13th streets west.

A.D. Morgon, Jon F. Swift Construction, NDC, Biltmore Construction and Manhattan Construction are all vying to provide construction management services to build the garage on the southwest corner of the city hall parking lot on the corner of Third Avenue West and Old Main Street. Two architectural firms will present their proposed designs on Thursday.

All five developers have extensive experience and there were only a few subtle differences in their presentations. Council members will make a decision some time in the near future.

While the design teams have not yet presented or been selected, all of the developers’ preferences have been toward pre-cast construction, which saves both time and money.

Rebecca Smith, president of A.D. Morgan with offices on Manatee Avenue, said her company has built eight parking garages, including the “award winning” garage on State Street in Sarasota. Like that one, Smith said Bradenton’s garage “leans so much toward the development of downtown.”

All of the developers were mindful in their presentations to reduce construction impact.

“I know a lot of construction activity is coming for downtown, a lot of exciting stuff,” said Jason Swift, president of Jon F. Swift Construction. “In the center of it all is the construction of the parking structure. It’s a tight area and we will need a lot of coordination and a holistic approach that ensures all of the community stakeholders are involved.”

Cost estimates ranged from $7.5 million to $10 million, but Councilman Bemis Smith said it’s too early to start “tossing numbers out there. It’s all speculation until we see the design side. It’s hard to hit specifics at this point.”

The city has budgeted $6.6 million in this fiscal year’s budget for the garage.

“Whatever the costs above that will come in the next budget cycle,” which begins a new fiscal year Oct. 1, said city administrator Carl Callahan.

The garage is expected to be a four-to-five story structure, with 400-450 parking spaces and retail on the ground floor.

Ron Allen, president of NDC, whose company built the city’s judicial parking garage in 2007, is also the contractor for the new hotel. Since the two projects are somewhat related, Allen said his company would put a lot of care into the “most worthwhile project in downtown. Not only for the needs of the public, but for the vested needs in the new hotel getting ready to start.”

NDC pulled the construction permits last week for the hotel, which has a 15-month construction timetable. Developers said it would take between eight month and 11 months to build the garage. depending on the final design.

The city council will hear presentations from Harvard Jolly Architecture and Fawley Bryant beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday.

This story was originally published February 21, 2017 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Developers make their pitches for new parking garage."