OVERVIEW - The City of Durango owns a 0.8-acre parcel of property located at 1917 E. 3rd Avenue. In early 2024, the City solicited Letters of Interest and Qualifications from experienced and creative developers, or organizations, with the necessary expertise and experience with public private partnerships to design, entitle, and develop a project which aligns with and achieves goals of the City of Durango organization and adheres to the Mercy Medical Planned Development (“PD”) agreement stipulations.

GOALS - The overarching goal of this Request was to explore the feasibility of establishing a creative and cost-effective public-private partnership which will result in a project that achieves the multifaceted goals of the City by making improvements to an underutilized City asset in a unique neighborhood. This Request was aimed to identify a partner to work with the City, other community entities, and potentially with adjacent property owners in the Mercy Medical PD to develop an innovative project which improves the functionality of the identified parcel within the greater neighborhood context.

Three (3) bids were formally submitted in response to the Request for Qualifications. A selection committee considered these bids and their alignment with the RFQ selection criteria:

1. Proposal is an innovative opportunity aligned with the neighborhood and the Mercy Medical PD context and is beneficial to the community character.
2. Proposal provides clear explanation how it will achieve the City's Strategic and Operating Plan goals with the proposed effort.
3. The proposal gives a clear estimation of timetables and costs for the proposed development.
4. The proposer clearly demonstrates their success and abilities with public private partnerships and other development projects.
5. The proposer shows their ability to bring necessary resources and team to the effort to implement the project vision.

The committee selected a bid which proposed development on the 1917 E. 3rd Avenue and 2019 E. 3rd Avenue sites. This bid was submitted by a partnership consisting of: Tri-County Head Start, Reynolds Ash + Associates, the Agave Group ("project team"). This group was issued a Notice of Intent to Award from the City's Purchasing Administrator in May of 2024, followed by a Notice of Final Award after some conceptual meetings were held.

After receiving feedback from the neighbors over the inclusion of Tract F with the RFQ and bid process, the project team (Head Start, RA+A, and Agave) withdrew the second phase of their proposal, which was to provide workforce housing on Tract F (August 2024).

The project team is working with the City, neighbors, and the greater community to proceed with their proposed development of Tract C which would provide an expanded Head Start facility to serve 90+ children.

The project team of Reynolds, Ash + Associates, Head Start, and the Agave Group were issued a Notice of Award for their conceptual re-use of Tract C (1917 E. 3rd Avenue). Their concept consists of the following:

Develop an expanded Head Start facility on the 1917 E. 3rd Avenue lot. This proposed facility would accommodate 54 preschoolers in 3 classes, and 40 toddlers in 2 classrooms. Anticipated staffing would be 14 full time teachers and 2 part-time. The City would have to negotiate a new land lease with Head Start for this property. The project would be 100% funded through Federal Grants and local Head Start Fundraising and grant-matching. The project will be turn-key, to include all site work, new city improvements including sidewalks, street trees, utilities, and street and alley improvements.

This conceptual development of Tract C originally proposed selling a portion of the 1917 E. 3rd Avenue property to an adjacent property owner. City staff has worked with the project team to communicate the City will not move forward with this land conveyance as it does not align with Strategic Plan or citywide goals and the land is needed to comply with obligations in the Mercy Planned Development Agreement.