2018 Selection of
The Robert Green Company
January 2018
Town issues Request for Qualifications (RFQ) from developers. The RFQ pertains specifically to the Block A (Huerta Gym) mixed-use/hotel site and seeks experience in similar projects. It also holds out the possibility of a master development agreement for the entire Civic Center site, but does not require experience in civic projects.
It is advertised in trade publications and sent to over 20 developers. Before a pre-submittal meeting is held on February 5, 2018, 5 developers indicate their intent to respond.
Ultimately only 2 developers, The Robert Green Company (RGC), developer of the Montage resort in Healdsburg, and Jon Marshall, a friend of Council member Dominic Foppoli, respond by the March 5 deadline.
In May, the Town’s review panel identifies RGC as best suited for the Block A project.
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July 18, 2018
Council selects RGC as master developer. The Council discusses why the Town received only 2 responses to the RFQ, and why the Request for Proposal (RFP) step is being dropped, but the outcome of the RFQ process is characterized as “normal”. There is no discussion of potential flaws in the RFQ itself.
The Council votes unanimously to direct staff to prepare an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) with RGC and provide an update within 90 days. However, no public update is provided until the April 17, 2019 Council meeting.
BAR, the architecture firm engaged by RGC for the project, creates a set of 7 sketches, dated September 26, 2018, that show the hotel development spread over most or all of the Civic Center site. Some sketches show the Town Hall and Library on the Telfer East site. A residential/short term rental component is added. There is no street separating the Town Green from the commercial development as shown in the Visioning Plan.
October 30, 2018
The 7 sketches are reviewed by Town staff to inform 3 preliminary schemes, dated October 30, 2018, that are included in the agenda for the April 17, 2019 Council meeting.
Interim Town Manager, Ken MacNab, arranges for the developer, Robert Green, to meet privately with individual Council members for lunches and dinners prior to the April 17 Council meeting.
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