Office of the City Manager

City Council Selects Team for Courts Project – Update

City Council selected First Choice Public – Private Partners, LLC, as the design-build team for the new court facility.  The City Council authorized the execution of a comprehensive agreement at the November 8, 2011 meeting.  In addition, the City is releasing the results of the consulting studies performed by Arcadis to assist the City Council in evaluating the various proposals.

The first Arcadis report assisted the City Council in evaluating the conceptual phase proposals, and is dated in May.  After the conceptual phase, the City invited three firms to submit detailed phase proposals – First Choice, Donley’s, and W.M. Jordan.  Arcadis reported on the detailed phase proposals, and prepared a City Council presentation to assist in review.

City Council Selects Team for Courts Project

Council selected First Choice Public-Private Partners, LLC as the design-build team for the new court facility at the September 20, 2011 work session.  See Press Release HERE.

Special Exception Permit Application

Special Use Permit Application

Review of Conceptual Phase Proposals Submitted Under PPEA - 5-21-2011

Review of Detailed Phase Proposals Submitted Under PPEA - 9-13-2011 

City Council Meeting Presentation 9-13-2011 PPEA Selection 4 

First Choice Comprehensive Agreement Including Cover Memorandum November 2011 

Court Facility Proposals

Fredericksburg City Council approved a short list of successful proposals at its regular meeting on June 14, 2011. Additional information has now been requested from the successful proposers.

The Notice to All Proposers and the Request for Information is available HERE.  Addendum No. 1 to the Request for Information can be viewed HERE.

Addendum No. 1 - Mandatory and Optional Spaces is available HERE.

Addendum No. 2 - Fredericksburg Courthouse RFI 7-21-2011 can be viewed HERE.

Addendum No. 3 - Fredericksburg Courthouse RFI 7-29-2011 can be viewed HERE.

The City has now received responses to the additional information requested from the shortlisted proposers.  City Council will be reviewing these responses over the next thirty to forty-five days to determine their preferred option to enter into negotiations.  Certain information in the responses is protected at this stage of the process; however, the public portions of the documents are posted for review.

The public portion of the response from First Choice, LLC, is HERE.
The public portion of the response from Donley’s is HERE.
The public portion of the response from W.M. Jordan is HERE.

The City has prepared a useful document that provides background about the courts project and explains the justification for the project.  It is available HERE.

Courthouse & Court Facilities PPEA Original Proposals

City Council held Work Sessions on March 15, 2011 and March 16, 2011 to hear presentations from the five design-build teams who submitted proposals in response to the PPEA request for building a new court facility.  The five teams presented a total of eight designs. Council and Staff are reviewing these proposals.  On May 17, 2011 Council held a Public Hearing to receive public comments.  Copies of the proposals are available for review in the City Manager’s Office Room 203 at City Hall, 715 Princess Anne Street. Electronic versions of the presentations and proposals are available HERE for your review. 

       Court Facility Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Courthouse & Court Facilities PPEA Solicitation -  The City of Fredericksburg desires to contract with an experienced Private Entity under the Public Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act (PPEA) for the design and construction of new Courthouse and Court Facilities. The Project includes the design and construction services to build a new Courthouse and expand existing Court Facilities. The project will include a new Circuit Court (2 courtrooms), District Court, Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court, secure parking, sally port, and Sheriff’s space.  Please CLICK HERE for the Request For Proposal and other important information.

Past Courthouse Complex Proposals (2007 through 2009)

In December 2007, the City Council approved the downtown post office site as the preferred site for the new courthouse. (See Resolution 07-122.) The 1852 Circuit Courthouse, while an architectural jewel of the historic district, is obsolete by modern court standards of security and separation, and must be replaced by a modern, combined courthouse on another site.

In January 2008, the City began working in earnest with Keating Development Company, the U.S. Postal Service’s designated developer, on the redevelopment of the post office site as a mixed use development as envisioned by the City’s JumpStart Fredericksburg 2010 Report. This mixed use development is envisioned to include a new courthouse complex, a postal retail station within a new commercial office, and a residential townhouse development. To accomplish the plan, the City must assist in the relocation of the USPS carrier facility.

In June 2008, City Council approved a Memorandum of Agreement with the USPS and Keating Development Company. The agreement defined a scope of work for pre-development activities related to the new courthouse and the relocation of the USPS carrier facility. The MOA organizes the scope of work into two phases.

Phase I consists of conceptual design and master planning. The work includes a preliminary site plan and block and stack floor plan diagrams for the proposed courts building. Keating has completed the Phase I work in November 2008. City Council must now assess progress, and determine whether to initiate work under Phase II.

Phase II consists of pre-development studies such as environmental assessment, geotechnical engineering, archeology, and traffic analysis. Phase II also includes preliminary design work on the USPS carrier facility.

On October 27, 2009, City Council received a presentation from architects Glavé & Holmes and Perkins Eastman describing site and building concepts which provide for the long-term facility and space needs of the courts. Properties in the 600 and 700 blocks of Princess Anne Street were evaluated as potential courthouse sites. For more details about this significant project, please see the link to the presentation.

Courthouse and Court Facilities Presentation 

On November 24, 2009 Council approved Scheme 5 which is the site of existing Fire Station #1 at 601 Princess Anne Street, as the preferred approach and authorized the city manager to begin preliminary work related to property aquisition for a new fire station. See more details here.

Past Courthouse Presentations (2007 through 2009)

View the PowerPoint presentations of New Courthouse for City of Fredericksburg and New Courthouse Planning.

City Manager's Memo Regarding Site Selection 

Court Feasibility Study (August 27, 2007)

In the City of Fredericksburg-commissioned report dated August 27, 2007, Moseley Architects of Richmond examines several important court issues including: