Council Agenda - City of Burbank

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Agenda Item - 6

 

 
                                        Burbank Water and Power

                                               MEMORANDUM
 

 

DATE: March 6, 2007
TO: Mary J. Alvord, City Manager
FROM: Ronald E. Davis, General Manager, BWP
SUBJECT: A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BURBANK AUTHORIZING THE GENERAL MANAGER OF BURBANK WATER AND POWER TO NEGOTIATE PRICE, TERMS, AND CONDITIONS OF A CONSTRUCTION AGREEMENT WITH ICON WEST, INC. FOR TENANT IMPROVEMENTS TO THE LIGHT FLEET BUILDING IN AN AMOUNT NOT-TO-EXCEED $740,000, AND FURTHER AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF SAID AGREEMENT.

 

PURPOSE

 

Staff seeks the approval of the Burbank City Council (Council) to authorize Burbank Water and Power (BWP) to negotiate and enter into a contract with Icon West, Inc. (Icon West) at or below $740,000 to make certain tenant improvements to the former Light Fleet Building within the BWP Campus.

 

BACKGROUND

 

The tenant improvements are part of a wider BWP campus improvement plan. BWP has developed a Campus Master Plan for their facilities located between Magnolia Boulevard (northern perimeter) and Olive Avenue (southern perimeter); and between Lake Street (western perimeter) and the Western Flood Control Channel (eastern perimeter).  Several factors prompted BWP to develop the plan:

 

  • The need to accommodate the Lake 1 Unit (now completed), the Magnolia Power Project (now completed), and to provide for other on-site generation needs

  • The need to build a replacement Burbank Station within the BWP Campus

  • The need to strengthen campus security

  • The need to improve traffic circulation, making it more safe and efficient

  • The need to improve employee parking, and to incorporate solar panels

  • The need to improve workflows, particularly between warehouse and field operations

  • The need to replace the existing BWP Warehouse

  • It has uneven and unsound flooring, and its useable space is too small.

  • It cannot be modified to meet seismic code.

  • The need to consolidate substandard service facilities into a modern service center

  • The Water Division service activities are within an old brick building that requires seismic improvements, but bringing it up to code is impractical.

  • Line Section work spaces are within a space that has shed-under-shed construction, which is a fire hazard.

  • Communication Section work spaces are within a deteriorating modular building that was meant to be temporary, but has, in fact, been in place for over 15 years.

Of immediate concern are the substandard facilities�aging modular buildings dating from 1991�that house the Communications Section, which oversees the City�s radio and phone systems. The plan is to relocate the Communications Section to the Olive Avenue side of the campus, within a renovated facility; the Light Fleet Building.

 

Relocating the Communications Shop by July 1, 2007 is on the critical path to the timely completion of the Replacement Service Center/Warehouse. The modular buildings lie within the future site of the Replacement Warehouse/Service Center, a critical campus improvement scheduled for completion in July 2008. To meet this completion target, the modular buildings need to be removed by July 2007. One approach is to move the Communications Shop to an interim location while awaiting the completion of the tenant improvements. However, moving the Communication Section is not easy, given the communication and network circuits that connect to their current facility. Moving them to an interim facility would take nearly as much time and effort as renovating their permanent facility.

 

Staff favors the approach of beginning the tenant improvement work on the former Light Fleet Building as quickly as possible, in order to relocate the Communication Section just once, and in a timely fashion. For the past 15 months, the Light Fleet Building has housed the Burbank Tournament of Roses Association (BTORA), which will move into BWP�s Auxiliary Warehouse Building on or before March 31, 2007. To accomplish the tenant improvements over the following months leading to July, staff proposes to engage Icon West, a contractor currently renovating BWP�s Main Administration Building.

 

ANALYSIS

 

An independent architectural firm, Wally Associates, has already prepared the engineering drawings for the tenant improvements.  The improvements are principally to create office and working spaces suitable to maintaining the phone and radio systems, as well as installing mobile radios in various vehicles, including police cars and fire engines. The tenant improvements are straightforward, modest in scope, and interfere minimally with BWP operations, making the design-build approach unnecessary.

Icon West would be immediately available to do the tenant improvements. As mentioned earlier, Icon West, which was selected after a very competitive bid process, is currently renovating BWP�s Main Administration Building. Icon West is therefore in an excellent position to take on this additional tenant improvement work.

 

Icon West has been doing an excellent job so far since January 4, 2007, with one of the most challenging phases of the BWP Administration Building renovation, the reworking of the basement level. The tenant improvements to the Light Fleet Building would be considerably simpler.

 

It is possible to achieve a competitive proposal from Icon West, even on a sole-source basis. BWP and Purchasing have identified an alternate, timely approach that will enable staff to judge whether or not a sole-source bid from Icon West would be competitive. BWP proposes to obtain two independent cost estimates from two construction cost estimators, Davis Langdon Adamson and Garan P. O�Hallaron Associates. Their estimates would serve as substitutes for bids other than Icon West�s; they would correspond to bids with minimal padding. In other circumstances, such estimates would be more precise than a preliminary estimate because they would benefit from the detail drawings and documents prepared by Wally and Associates.

 

Staff is confident of receiving a competitive proposal for several reasons:

  • Icon West is already doing tenant improvement work on site, which should keep its startup costs to a minimum.

  • BWP has the benefit of the bidding for the work within the BWP Administration Building, which can provide a test of whether particular costs are reasonable.

  • As they are doing in the BWP Administration Building, BWP�s electricians will identify and upgrade old electrical circuits as needed, work that would represent a major cost factor if given to an outside contractor.

  • BWP can defer adding a mezzanine section if it proves too costly at the present time.

With the independent cost estimates and the architectural drawings and documents, staff would be in a position to effectively negotiate with Icon West. Staff would enter into a contract with Icon West only if their bid proposal was in reasonable agreement with the independent cost estimates.

 

Along with BWP and the assistance of the City Attorney�s Office, Purchasing would be a part of the negotiating team. If BWP could not reach an Agreement with Icon West by March 30, 2007, then BWP would work with Purchasing to consider formal bidding or other options.

 

Formal bidding, while delaying the tenant improvements, may not achieve a better price proposal. Construction activity within Los Angeles County, most notably the nine billion dollar effort to build facilities for Los Angeles Unified School District, is already fully occupying many contractors. In today�s busy construction market, tenant improvement work that is less than one million dollars will probably not attract much interest. (Consider that just putting together a competitive bid costs a firm $50,000 to $75,000.)

 

Fund 535�s budget includes making tenant improvements to the Light Fleet Building, at an estimated cost of $740,000. Fund 535, an internal service fund for the City�s radio and phone systems, is supporting the tenant improvements.

 

CONCLUSION

 

For all of the foregoing reasons, staff submits that a finding can be made under Charter Section 54 that it is in the best interests of the City to waive formal bidding and authorize direct negotiations with Icon West for these tenant improvements.

 

FISCAL IMPACT

 

The fiscal impact of negotiating a contract with Icon West is positive because BWP thereby has the best chance of completing the tenant improvements to the Light Fleet Building within schedule and budget.

 

RECOMMENDATION

 

Staff recommends that the City Council accept staff�s recommendations to authorize BWP to negotiate with Icon West and enter into a contract at or below $740,000 to complete certain tenant improvements to BWP�s former Light Fleet Building by July 2007. If the Council concurs, the appropriate action would be a motion to adopt the Resolution entitled:

 

A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BURBANK  AUTHORIZING THE GENERAL MANAGER OF BURBANK WATER AND POWER TO NEGOTIATE PRICE, TERMS, AND CONDITIONS OF A  CONSTRUCTION AGREEMENT WITH ICON WEST, INC. FOR CERTAIN TENANT IMPROVEMENTS TO BWP�S LIGHT FLEET BUILDING IN AN AMOUNT NOT-TO-EXCEED $740,000 AND FURTHER AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF SAID AGREEMENT.

 

RED:GLS:jg

 

Attachment

 

c:          R. Morillo                    

             P. Herman                   

             B. Liu

             W. Hutchings

            J. Cassidy

            D. Gibbons                  

 

 

go to the top