Making the right choice for Cheltenham

Cabinet members last night adopted criteria for scoring and evaluating development bids for a major town centre regeneration project. The selection criteria will make sure that developer bids for the regeneration of North Place and Portland Street are considered openly and fairly. It will also help to ensure that the development meets the council's aspirations for this key town centre location.

The sites went out to market through the leading property consultancy GVA last month. Developers have been invited to submit their proposals to regenerate the sites against a brief informed by the Cheltenham Development Taskforce and supported by full council following public consultation.  A shortlist of no more than five developers will be chosen by evaluating a number of factors including:  the organisation or consortium's  finances; similar project experience; design quality; sustainability approach; health and safety considerations; previous contract performance; and finance raising ability and experience.  

The shortlisted bidders will be invited to submit outline proposals for the site and the two bidders offering the best submissions will be asked to put forward detailed proposals.  They will be assessed according to a scoring system that gives broadly equal weight to financial considerations and planning and environmental issues.  

The process for identifying a preferred bidder is controlled by procurement rules prescribed by the European Union.  The project timescale anticipates that the final two short listed bidders will be announced this autumn, when members of the public will be invited to look at the plans and have their say.  It is hoped that the preferred bidder will be chosen by the end of this year, with Cheltenham Borough Council making the final decision.

Councillor John Rawson, cabinet member for built environment said: ''We are determined to choose a development scheme which not only delivers a very high quality of design but also releases capital which can be used to improve other parts of the town centre.  The scoring system we have adopted will allow us to do this in an open and transparent way.  This is probably the most important development opportunity there has been in the town for 30 years, offering tremendous scope for developers, and I am looking forward to seeing their proposals.''


For press enquiries, contact: Katie Sandey, communications team leader, telephone 01242 775050 or email: [email protected]

For development enquiries, contact: James Petherick at GVA on 0117 9885331 or email [email protected]

Notes:

OJEU:

Notice for the site disposal and associated works has been placed in the OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union).  The selection of preferred bidder needs to follow the requirements of the EU procurement rules. 

Procurement Process:

Selecting a development partner to work with Cheltenham Borough Council to deliver the right scheme will be undertaken in three main stages:
1.  Stage One will involve the advertising of the opportunity through OJEU and selected media with an invitation for interested parties to submit a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQs) to GVA as agents of the council
2.  Upon receipt of PQQs within the defined timescale, the council and its partners and advisers will shortlist up to a maximum of 5 bidders with the financial resources and expertise in delivering this type of development.  Stage Two will involve an invitation to participate in an open dialogue for five shortlisted bidders.
3. Stage Three will involve the final two shortlisted bidders being invited to develop detailed solutions and submit final tenders. It is anticipated that a negotiated dialogue will ultimately result in the identification of a preferred developer.

More detail is contained within the introductory information pack which includes details of the sites and a indicative timescale.

View the pre-qualification questionionnaire.

Development brief:

The development brief - which won support from full council last month - is significantly more flexible than its predecessors, and encourages potential developers to bring forward proposals for a mixture of town centre uses which they believe will be financially viable. This will include some residential development and can also include commercial, retail and leisure uses.  The brief also calls for at least 300 public car parking spaces to be provided, as well as a public square and six bay bus node.   Property consultant GVA is acting as agent for the sites which are currently used as car parks.