March 28, 2024
Annapolis, US 47 F

Annapolis selects team to spearhead City Dock redevelopment and garage replacement

City Manager David Jarrell announced that the City of Annapolis has awarded Annapolis Mobility and Resilience Partners (AMRP) a predevelopment agreement for the rebuild of Hillman Garage and Annapolis City Dock. The garage design-build cost is estimated at $21.8 million. The design-build cost for City Dock is estimated at $34.2 million. The total cost is $56 million, making it the largest-ever construction project in the City’s history. The Hillman Garage project will be self-funded as part of a public-private partnership, and the City Dock project will be partially funded with proceeds from the garage project.

“This process began with two major issues for the City: a garage that is beyondits service life and a downtown area in dire need of a plan to combat sea level rise,” said Jarrell. “We are implementing a plan that allows us to resolve both issues without asking taxpayers to foot the bill.”

The seed of the idea for a public-private partnership to fund the design-build project was brought to the City in 2018 by the Center for Global Sustainability.  In 2019, the City Dock Action Committee, a task force consisting of nearly 100 city stakeholders, was initiated jointly by the City of Annapolis and Historic Annapolis to study the idea. The group held public meetings and came up with a “Consensus Plan” for revitalizing City Dock  that would not only address ongoing and future tidal flooding and storm surge issues, but also create a high-quality community assembly space. Additional issues of stormwater management would be addressed to help water quality issues in the Annapolis Harbor. The privatization of Hillman Garage became the funding mechanism for a portion of the City Dock costs.

“This has been a long process,” said Mayor Buckley. “The team has been very thorough in determining a path forward for our City. The fact is, we’ve had tidal flooding for decades – worse every year – and this plan will take our historic City into the next three centuries with little economic pain for residents.”

The projects will be financed through a combination of tax-exempt debt secured by revenues generated from garage operation receipts, resilience grants, and Resilience Finance Authority funding. The financial structure will be to use revenues from the parking operation to partially fund the City Dock project. The City and partners will also pursue state and federal climate resilience grant funding.

In 2019 and 2020, the City, Anne Arundel County and other municipalities and jurisdictions around the state worked with the Maryland State Legislature to create and pass enabling legislation for Resilience Finance Authorities to create funding mechanisms for critical infrastructure related to sea level rise. The resilience finance authority enabling legislation, sponsored by State Sen. Sarah Elfreth (District 30), passed in the shortened General Assembly session in 2020.

This City Dock project will use funding through the Resilience Finance Authority, which will jointly be created by the City and Anne Arundel County.

In August of 2019, the City advertised a Request for Qualifications.  Annapolis Mobility and Resilience Partners (AMRP), a team consisting of ten member companies to handle the various design, build, financing and operational components of the project, was one of two teams selected to provide formal cost and technical proposals for the project.  The teams submitted proposals in the spring of 2020 to the City Review Committee. The reviewers included Annapolis City Manager David Jarrell, Annapolis Economic Development Manager Stephen Rice, Annapolis Department of Transportation Director Rick Gordon, Annapolis Procurement Officer Brian Snyder, Anne Arundel County Public Works Director Chris Phipps, consultant Dan Nees, consultant Eileen Fogarty, Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis’ Francisco Castellanos, and retired banker Nate Bertrum.

After review of the two comprehensive proposals received, AMRP was selected as the successful team.  The winning Hillman replacement proposal is to build a five-level parking garage that would increase parking capacity from 400 to 575 spaces. The garage will be adaptively designed for future repurposing, giving flexibility to the City’s transit and housing needs. The construction schedule is 14 months, not including the design, permitting and public input phases.

A Pre-Development Agreement has been negotiated by the City with AMRP.  The member firms of the AMRP team include: Hunt Companies (Developer), Treadwell Franklin and Sewall (Development Advisors and Program Managers), Whiting Turner (Design Build Contractor), BCT Architects (Master Planner), Walker Consultants (Lead Designer, Hillman Garage), WSP (Lead Designer, City Dock), Mahan Rykiel (Landscape Architect), Premium Parking (Parking Operator), and Via (Mobility Solutions).

The City Dock project will involve reconfiguring the storm drain system with a new stormwater pump station, raising the sea walls and installing hydraulic, flip-up storm surge gates.  A new elevated green park will provide stormwater infiltration and additional defense against rising seas as well as provide great views and an expanded community park. The City Dock construction will take approximately 12 months, not inclusive of design, permitting and public input.

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