Council Prefers First Choice Court Proposal

The Fredericksburg City Council has ranked First Choice Public Private Partners as its preferred firm to design and build a new downtown court facility, according to a press release issued earlier this afternoon by City Manager Beverly Cameron.

The decision caps off a seven month evaluation process which saw city leaders compare and contrast proposals submitted by five different design/build teams.  Projects were judged on design, cost, phasing, location, schedule and overall project benefit. 

The selection of First Choice means that the city will now enter into negotiations with the team in the hopes of reaching a final agreement. First Choice has worked with the city before to build James Monroe High School, Lafayette Upper Elementary School as well as the City Police Headquarters on Cowan Blvd. 

"First Choice was one of five highly qualified design-build teams competing for the project," wrote Cameron in the press release. "The city is sincerely grateful to all proposers who invested enormous time, talent and resources into the development of their proposals."

Cameron said that the city's decision was made more difficult because of the complexity and scale of the project, but said that the new court facility would mee the long-term space and security needs for the courts. 

First Choice's proposal is made up of a consortium of companies, including English Construction Company, Moseley Architects, and Glave and Holmes Architecture. 

First Choice's proposal would see a new three story, 78,500 square foot, $35 million courts building constructed next to City Hall on the site of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court at Princess Anne and Charlotte streets. This plan would require the juvenile and domestic relations court temporarily relocate to Executive Plaza during construction. This building would not house all of the court facilities, calling for the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court to be relocated to current General District Court building, while the General District Court would be housed in the new building. Scheme Two is estimated to take 30 months to complete.

First Choice beat out two other competing bids still in the running as of last night submitted by consortiums headed up by W.M. Jordan and Donley's.

The City Council arrived at its decision last night during a two hour closed session. After the meeting, Mayor Thomas Tomzak said that the City Council had reached a consensus, but would be unable to disclose the identity of the preferred proposal until the remaining design/build teams were notified.