CITY OF HOBOKEN
ADDENDUM TO RFP DOCUMENTS
RFP – 19 – 08 (2nd Attempt)
Request for Proposals (RFP) – Professional Services Hoboken Innovation Center Feasibility Study This Addendum # 1, dated October 7, 2019 is issued to modify the above mentioned RFP and is hereby made part of the RFP documents. Please attach this Addendum #1 to the original documents in your possession, and ensure same is included in your proposal.
A. Questions and answer:
Q1. Does it mean that the City of Hoboken may split the project, select 2 or 3 different vendors and award each of them with specific parts of the scope of work? For example, is it a possible for the City of Hoboken to award:
- Project Management to Vendor X
- Community Engagement to another vendor
- Developing the Innovation Center Feasibility Study to a third vendor?
A1. No. For this RFP, the City intends to award the contract to one vendor only.
Q2. If the answer to Question 1 is positive, may a vendor submit an offer for only one of these 3 parts tasks and still be evaluated fairly with evaluation criteria shown on p.27? Some of the criteria seem to be task specific and may lower the overall evaluation of a vendor applying solely to, for instance, the "Developing the Innovation Center Feasibility Study" part only.
A2. See A1 above.
Q3. What are the specific requirements of the response contents and order? Page 25 references
‘Proposal Requirements’, but there does not seem to be a list.
A3. Submission requirements is listed on page 28. There is no set format for the proposal, vendor will have to decide on their own format, ensure that you address all the evaluation criteria on
page 27.
Q4. Has the City budgeted a range of professional services fee?
A4. Yes, the maximum professional services fee is $100,000, the total grant from the NJEDA Innovation Planning Challenge program.
Q5. Will the City support community engagement with a foundational contact’s list and/or use of resident data to ensure comprehensive outreach?
A5. Yes, the City and the project partners will work with the consultant to establish a community engagement strategy and foundational contact list.
Q6. The opening paragraph of the Specifications section, page 16, states "The City of Hoboken is seeking a licensed planning consultant or economic development consultant demonstrating expertise through an advanced degree, with experience organizing similar co-working initiatives for tech-enabled businesses, to prepare an Innovation Center Feasibility Study." Green Diamond is not a licensed planning consultant but has provided innovation consulting to more than a dozen clients, public and private sector. Most notable, City of Philadelphia, State of New Jersey, City of Richmond, and District of Columbia, just to name a few. While our professional team holds advanced degrees from Wharton, Harvard, University of Illinois, and Carnegie Mellon, we're seeking clarification with respect to the "licensed planning" requirement. It's not a requirement
that we've come across from any of the public or private sector entities we've consulted for so we're trying to understand Hoboken's intent behind this specific requirement. Are we precluded from bidding if we are not a licensed planning consultant even thou we've helped more than a dozen organizations with their innovation strategies (assessment, plans, hubs, processes, funding, etc)?
A6. No. The consultant may be a “licensed planning consultant or an economic development consultant demonstrating expertise through an advanced degree. Refer to page 27, evaluation criteria, the contract will be awarded to the vendor with the highest score.
Q7. Note - the requirement for a licensed planning consultant or economic development consultant was not included in the first release of the RFP so we're just trying to understand what prompted the City of Hoboken to change from first to second release.
A7. There was a major revision in the specifications, rather than issuing an addendum, the City decided to cancel the first release.
Q8. What is the budget for this project?
A8. The maximum budget for the consultant is $100,000, the total grant from the NJEDA Innovation Planning Challenge program.
Q9. The total points outlined in the evaluation criteria table sum up to 103. Is that just a math error or is the total really 103?
A9. Correct this is a mathematical error, the total is 103.
B. The City will not accept questions/RFI at this time. Submission deadline remains the same: October 18, 2019 at 3:00 pm prevailing time.
This addendum will be published in the newspaper and posted on the City of Hoboken website to ensure compliance.
There are no other changes to this RFP documents as part of this addendum.
ATTEST: Date: October 7, 2019
AL B. Dineros, QPA
Purchasing Agent
