Board Selects Three Firms to Move Forward with Public Private Partnership
February 5, 2008 – The Wake County Board of Education is moving ahead with plans that could lead to Wake County’s first public private partnership for the construction of a school building.At today’s meeting, the board authorized staff to initiate the next phase of the public private partnership process by inviting three teams of developers to submit a second round of proposals that will include a more detailed response and financial analysis for the building and leasing of a new elementary school.
WCPSS is embarking on the public private partnership process with the goal of providing facilities faster and more efficiently.
The three teams of developers include:
- Balfour Beatty Capital, Balfour Beatty Construction, Schenkel Schultz Architecture and Heery International
- First Choice Public Private Partners, LLC, an association of English Construction Company with Moseley Architects
- Place Enterprises, LLC, Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, and Clancy and Theys Construction Company
These three teams will submit their proposals to the school system by March 14 for review and evaluation. Staff will consider such factors as price, design, construction, schedule, and financing and will then make a recommendation to the board in April.
After receiving and reviewing the second phase of proposals, the board is expected to vote during its meeting on April 22, 2008 on whether to continue with the public private partnership process with one of the three firms or to proceed with the traditional delivery method.
Earlier Public Private Partnership Planning
In December, six firms responded to the request for proposals to develop, build and lease an elementary school for 800 students on undeveloped land provided by the school system. The elementary school site is located in Wake Forest and scheduled to open in 2010.
A selection committee consisting of WCPSS facility staff, Wake County staff and a representative from the Citizens’ Facilities Advisory Committee reviewed the six proposals and recommended three teams of developers. This recommendation was reviewed by the Facilities Committee at its meeting on January 29, 2008.
In 2006, state law gave school systems the ability to enter into a lease for privately-developed public schools. Previously, N.C. school systems could lease and renovate facilities, but the 2006 law allows the Board of Education to identify where schools are needed, provide design and construction specifications to the builders, and then enter into a lease agreement with the developer upon completion.