Your questions for the Somerleyton Road development manager and design team

Posted By on Nov 27, 2013 |


(Please submit your suggestions for questions by the 16th December 2013)

[contact-form 9 “Questions for team”]

Overview

Instead of handing over the site to a developer, Somerleyton Road will be developed in a new way. The Council will appoint a design team and a development manager to work with the council and the community to develop the site.  This approach will give the council and the community more control over:

  • What is built
  • How it is built
  • How it is financed

What do their jobs involve?

  • Development manager: Their role is that of an enhanced “project manager”, with specialist knowledge of construction, building procurement and contracts, financial modelling of construction projects, and knowledge of sources and costs of debt and equity for construction projects.
  • Design team: This includes the architects. They will design the shape and structure of the development.

What will their role be for the Somerleyton Road Project?

Their role in the project will be to work as an ‘in-house’ team reporting to the steering group (Lambeth, Brixton Green & the Ovalhouse Theatre). It will be a consultancy role: giving advice to Lambeth, with Lambeth, (and the steering group) as the decision-maker.

The project will be divided into two stages:

 

Stage 1: Detailed plans and planning permission (March 2014  to Sep 2014)

In Stage 1 the team will:

a)      Develop the project brief with the steering group and the local community;

b)      Develop a transparent financial model to demonstrate the “trade-offs” and what’s possible;

c)      Provide an inclusive and transparent design process (minimum of 8 stakeholder workshops);

d)      Help determine the most cost-effective way of funding the project and ownership arrangements;

e)      Secure planning consent for the site;

 

IF the council is confident the plans are viable and they meet the council’s and the community’s ambitions, the project will proceed to Stage 2

 

 

Stage 2: Construction & hand-over (Jun 2015 to Apr 2017)

Once planning permission has been granted the team will:

a)      Procure a contractor and manage the build contract on behalf of the council;

b)      Ensure that the quality and vision of the scheme is achieved;

c)      Handover the development to Lambeth or the community trust/ cooperative on completion;

 

What should the steering group look out for when choosing the team?

For instance:

1)      Evidence to support their claims: For example if a team says “we strongly support the involvement of the community” we will need to see the evidence of work that has been carried out e.g. how they have involved and empowered the community, or a process of how they would do this in the future, and ask is it a really good example of best practice.

2)      References to involvement in good work which:

  • Has been brought about by a good client, but which was not initiated or created by the bidder (piggy-backing on someone else’s work).
  • Or being a consultant as part of a team, but not showing how their own part in that team contributed to the outcome.
 

Lambeth’s questions

Lambeth has advertised the role with the following preliminary questions:

1) Demonstrate a successful track record of delivering similar sized, mixed use schemes in an urban setting.

2) What would you consider to be your best development in terms of design quality on a site with similar constraints to Somerleyton Road - and why do you consider it to be your best.

3) Demonstrate your approach to project management for similar projects.

4) Demonstrate how you have previously worked in an open and transparent way with local communities, involving them in decision making.

5) Lambeth’s Business Questionnaire (are they a viable business to take on the role etc).

Please see the link below for the document issued to applicants:

…help suggest additional questions

We want the community to help decide additional questions for the teams applying. For example the additional questions could be used to get a better understanding of the team’s ‘best development’ and ‘track record’ e.g.

  • Have they been involved with delivering efficient homes that are intensively used (i.e. families seven days a week rather than just single/couples only living in the home for the working week).
  • The nature of the heritage buildings they’ve dealt with.
  • Their approach to environmental sustainability.

 

 

Additional questions suggested so far include:

1)      Who will be assigned from their company to work on the project:

  1. Who will be the director and where they sit in the pecking order of the organisation.
  2. What their capabilities and specific experience are.
  3. Will we have experienced specialists committing sufficient time and effort?

 

2)      What will they do to ensure the council and the community gets the best value:

  1. How would the project team remove unnecessary expenditure?
  2. How, in an ideal world, would they phase the development to make it as cost-effective as possible?

 

 

Timeline: What’s next?

The programme to select the team:

Milestone Date
Advertisement for the team (OJEU Notice) 21 November 2013
Community workshop 28 November 2013
Bidders Day 04 December 2013
Community wider stakeholder meeting 18 December 2013
Deadline for clarification questions 18 December 2013
Lambeth Business Questionnaires return deadline 7 January 2014
Questionnaire evaluation and shortlisting 7 Jan  – 24 Jan 2014
Invitation to Tender issued 27 January 2014
Direction of Travel meetings w/c 10 February 2014
Community workshops w/c 10 February 2014
Final Tenders returned 7 March 2014
Interviews w/c 17 March 2014
Evaluation 28 March 2014
Procurement Board 1 tbc
Notifications 15 April 2014
Contract Award 25 April 2014

Indicative Delivery Programme

Stage 1 Timing
Develop bespoke financial model for testing scenarios June 2014
Agree preferred legal structure July 2014
Agree preferred funding model July 2014
Agree preferred procurement strategy July 2014
Planning application submitted January 2015
Stage 2 Timing
Planning consent obtained June 2015
Contractor procured July 2015
Conclusion of building contract April 2017
Handover of buildings April 2017