The City of Manassas Park received an unsolicited proposal from a Manassas engineering company to build a new city hall and parking garage for as much as $24 million, according to city documents.
EMSI Engineering Inc. of Manassas hand-delivered the seven-page document and proposal cover letter to city officials on Nov. 21. The company’s proposal states that the parking garage would accompany the new city hall, costing about $10 million to $12 million for each structure, according to the EMSI proposal. Those figures are based on similar projects completed by the company.
The construction would take between 15 and 18 months, which means the structure could be completed by the summer of 2014, if the permitting process begins in January, according to the proposal. The proposed 60,000-square-foot city hall would be constructed on city-owned land on Park Center Court, adjacent to the Norfolk Southern Railroad line. Another option is for EPI Partners—the limited licensing corporation created by EMSI for the project—to “swap” land the company already owns in the same area for the city’s land.
EPI Partners LLC will retain an option to lease back from the city 15,000 to 20,000 square feet of the new facility for EMSI Engineering’s new headquarters. EMSI Engineering Inc. partner Talal Hassan said a key part in the financing of the project would be for his company to relocate to Manassas Park.
Hassan said he is aware of Manassas Park’s strained financial situation, but if the company is located in Manassas Park, it would bring tax dollars and more than 100 jobs to the city. Manassas Park officials have said on several occasions that more businesses are badly needed in the city and are key in improving the city’s finances. People would pay to use the parking garage, which would help pay back the costs of building the facilities, Hassan said.
EMSI Engineering partners spent some six months coming up with the proposal, Hassan said. One of the partners, who he declined to identify, is highly vested in Manassas Park and has been doing business in the area for more than 25 years, Hassan added. About two years ago, the company approached the city about building a library in Manassas Park, but nothing ever came of it, Hassan said.
City officials did respond to that proposal, but Hassan said it couldn’t be done at that time, he added.
As of Tuesday, the company hadn’t heard anything from city officials about its latest proposal, Hassan said.
Manassas Park City Manager Jim Zumwalt said city council will be adopting the revised guidelines for handling Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure proposals and Public-Private Transportation Projects at Tuesday's meeting. The guidelines are relevant to the unsolicited proposal because they are the rules under which it will be considered, Zumwalt said. He doesn't anticipate any discussion of the proposal during that meeting, he added.
It is not clear when the Manassas Park City Council will meet to discuss the proposal. The EMSI proposal and proposal letter is available online at the City of Manassas Park’s website.
The city is accepting competing unsolicited proposals for simultaneous consideration. Proposals should be submitted to: City Manager’s Office, City of Manassas Park, One Park Center Court, Manassas Park, VA 20111. Proposals should comply with the City of Manassas Park Combined Guidelines for Public-Private Education Facilities (PPEA) and Infrastructure and Public-Private Transportation (PPTA). The guidelines are available on the city's website. Qualifying proposals should address the development of properties in the vicinity of the VRE Commuter Rail Station in Manassas Park.
For further information contact the City of Manassas Park 703-335-8813.
Competing proposals will be accepted until Jan. 9.
Interesting viewpoints. I think the project sounds good in theory— it's right in line with what many city officials want to do, which is attract businesses to relocate to Manassas Park. It also seems to kill two birds (or three) with one stone: A new city hall, new headquarters for EMSI and tax revenue for the city. The plan for recouping the costs of the project sound good, but on the other hand, I wonder who is going to finance this project while it's being built? I can't wait to see how this all turns out. Even if this project doesn't materialize, I'm glad to see that people are putting their heads together and truly thinking of good ways to improve the city.
I wonder the same thing. I need to ask Mr. Hassan about that later.
A parking garage is nice but we sure don't need it now because there aren't any businesses in city center, and if their people who cant find a parking place in the vre lot and want to park, well that would only be a dozen or so. thats not enough to run a pay garage, is it?
The city center development was scaled down due to the recession. It needs a more critical mass and an anchor tenant...the link is an initial presentation for the city center http://www.cityofmanassaspark.us/public_documents/ManassasParkVA_WebDocs/Presentations/ParkCenterNov1505.pdf
As for City Center, I did some research on that project and MP officials bent over backwards to move that project fast and it was all promised that there would be retail there and there isn't anything. I would like to know how much the lease is for one of those buildings and how much it has been dropped to fit the economic circumstances. Maybe the leases are just too expensive and they won't budge on the leases
It seems this company already has land in MP but they don't have the assets to build on it so they are trying to get the city to build for them and they just rent WHICH doesn't create any taxes on rent. If they want space there is plenty of it across the street. AND, how much will they charge people to park in this lot? If it's $2 a day, that's going to take 5 million cars to pay for it. Doesn't seem like it will be that cost efficient.
From what I understand MP officials didn't bend over backward to move the plan along. Remember what the city clerk to council explained to us? She said that Manassas Park is small and doesn't exactly have a big, long line of businesses waiting to get approval to build in MP. Because the city is small, projects automatically move through the system a little faster. But to your point, I think everybody was excited about City Center and that they did have a joint planning commission/city council meeting which shorten the approval process by what— a single week or a single day out of the project-depending on when the bodies would normally meet separately. But having said that, they had a joint meeting in December for another project, so doing that isn't exactly that special.
This will be difficult since there is a Super Walmart, Shoppers, Harris Teeter, Giant, and Bloom within 2 miles of the City Center.
As for parking... I would not go with meter or pay parking. One of the nicest things about our area and Manassas in general is that parking is free! It's just that much more incentive for me to do my shopping locally and in Old Town when I know I can park in a covered parking garage or curbside to do my shopping. Excited to see what may come of this proposal!
An interesting point with the contract is that it says "Clark will use its good-faith efforts to market the space designated as flex-retail residential for retail uses only. If Clark is unable to lease the flex space at market rates then Clark may convert and lease space for residential uses." That may have already happened. In the Sept. 19, 2006 minutes the city attorney said that the original plan was that the developer would build one of two restaurant sites and "they are not only required to have a lease signed but also have substantially complete construction on one of the preferred restaurants which includes fixtures."
Mayor (clueless) is going to ram this down our throats and then leave office next year. So he does not have to complain about it. If you want go to 189 Manassas Drive and complain to the mayor and tell him to stop this build.
Stores won't locate to city center because there is insufficient parking for customers. The engineer paid by the developer to design horrible parking at city center is the same guy paid by taxpayers to review his plan and inspected his work. A public employee getting money from both sides of the fence to ensure that city center could't attract stores. But at least he and the developer made out like bandits. Guess who approved 8' wide parking spaces -- the city engineer, zoning, planning, plan review, inspection, public works, mayor Jones and the city council. Every other store in America (except city center) has 9' to 10' wide parking spaces, lets all go buy mini Coopers. Retailers are afraid to open a store without nice parking. Just imagine the developer's engineer being the same guy as the taxpayers engineer. Good thing there aren't any conflicts of interest or insider transactions going on. Good thing we homeowners have extra money to pay for the tax deficit. But at least in these dark times the city engineer is smiling.