Public Gets First Look at City Courts Proposals

Last night, in the first of two meetings, members of the public had their first glimpses at proposals for a new court facility in downtown Fredericksburg. In all, three of the five design-build teams presented during a marathon three hour series of presentations before City Council. The four concepts presented by the three teams last night saw new court facilities proposed for three different locations, Executive Plaza, Fredericksburg Fire Station 1 and the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

 Presenting last night were design-build teams led by Hensel Phelps Construction Co., FirstChoice Public-Private Partnership and Clancy and Theys, respectively. The other two design-build teams will present their proposals tonight. Each team had one hour to make their presentation and field questions from the City Council. Members of the public were not permitted to comment or question the proposals. 

 The Hensel Phelps team, additionally comprised of Fentress Architects, Herlong Associates and BioRealty Inc., was the first design-build team to present last night. Presenting a single concept, their proposal calls for the city to build a new five story, 107,000 square-foot, $35 million court facility on the site of the Executive Plaza (referred to with open disdain as Big Ugly throughout the meeting) at Caroline and Wolfe streets. Their proposal would have all of the city's courts and the commonwealth attorney's office under one building. The building is designed with five courtrooms, but has the capacity to expand to eight courtrooms if the need arises. 

 This flexibility of the Hensel Phelps plan was presented as a hedge against future growth in the caseload of the city courts for up to 60 years.

 Brent Helmandollar, manager of preconstruction services for Hensel Phelps, did much of the presentation for their team. He said that if his team could complete the project in 25 months. 

 "If the contract is awarded in June, you'll be in a new courthouse by July 2013," said Helmandollar during his presentation. 

 Helmandollar also stressed that his team's plan does not call for the demolition of any historic structures and would result in the removal Executive Plaza. He also noted that the location would take advantage of existing parking infrastructure vis-a-vis the Sophia Street Parking Garage located next to Executive Plaza. 

 The Hensel Phelps proposal would be funded with through tax exempt lease revenue bonds which would see the city pay for the costs of the facility through 30 years of rental fees estimated at $3.3 million annually. At the end of the 30 year lease, the city would have the option to purchase the facility for $1. 

 Because the Hensel Phelps proposal consolidates all the city's courts into one building, the proposal also addressed how the city could re-use the Renwick building, which houses the Circuit Court, and the buildings which house the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court and the General District Court. 

 The next team to present was FirstChoice Public Private Partnership, additionally comprised of Moseley Architecture and English Construction Co. They presented two different proposals to upgrade the municipal court infrastructure, labeled Scheme Two and Scheme Five. 

 Scheme Two would see a new three story, 106,000 square foot, $35 million courts building constructed next to City Hall on the site of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court at Princess Anne and Charlotte streets. This plan would require the juvenile and domestic relations court temporarily relocate to Executive Plaza during construction. Some aspects of this design seemed to mirror the Renwick building more than the others, with a colonnaded tower rising from the structure facing Princess Anne Street. This building would not house all of the court facilities, calling for the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court to be relocated to current General District Court building, while the General District Court would be housed in the new building. Scheme Two is estimated to take 30 months to complete. 

 FirstChoice's other proposal, Scheme Five, would see the new court facility located on the site of Fredericksburg Fire Station 1, and would require the construction of a new fire house on property near the Freelance-Star building on William Street. Because of this, Scheme Five would cost about $41 million and take about 36 months to complete.  

 Raymond Booth, special projects coordinator for English Construction proposed funding the project with a general obligation bond, citing the city's access to cheap credit. 

 The last team to present at yesterday's meeting was the Clancy and Theys design build team, additionally comprised of HBA Architecture and H&A Architects and Engineers. Their proposal was also slated for the current site of Fredericksburg Fire Station 1, calling for the relocation of the fire station to the site of the old regional jail in downtown Fredericksburg. The Clancy and Theys proposal sets out a 33 month construction schedule; nine months constructing a new fire house, 24 months of court construction. The cost is estimated to run $38.8 million, not including the costs to construct a new fire house, which was casually estimated to cost between $5 million and $6 million. 

 More than any other proposal presented last night, the Clancy and Theys team articulated environmentally friendly aspects of their design, which makes use of natural light in expansive atriums and in the court rooms themselves, cutting down on electric costs for lighting. The building's roof would also harvest rainwater for a cooling system. 

 City Manager Beverly Cameron, in a statement at the start of the meeting, noted that all prices bandied about during the meeting were preliminary.

 "We have asked that they propose fixed fees for [the design-build teams] design and general contracting, but construction costs we inter in our draft contract to have that as an open book process," said Cameron. The goal is to get as much competition as possible at that stage, he said. 

 Cameron also laid out the next steps in the proposal review process, outlining a two step process to narrow the field. He said a public hearing would be held before the list is narrowed down. 

 "Our intent is to create a shortlist for a small group of firms to go into a detail phase," said Cameron. "We may ask them to enhance their designs based on scope clarifications we may make, we will ask them to respond to our draft contract terms and conditions. Then we go through an evaluation process to short list a firm to enter into negotiations with."

Cameron also announced the creation of a special city email address, courtproposalcomments@fredericksburgva.gov, which residents can use to submit on the proposals to be distributed to city leaders. 

Last nights meeting was recorded for a tape-delay broadcast on Cox Channel 24 and Verizon FiOS Channel 42 on March 17 and 18 at 6 p.m.