March 01–BRADENTON — Downtown Bradenton's riverfront is about to experience another surge of redevelopment.
On Tuesday, the Bradenton City Council selected the construction firm NDC to construct a parking garage at what is now the parking lot behind City Hall at Third Avenue West and Main Street.
The council also chose the architectural firm Fawley Bryant to design the garage.
While building the garage, NDC will also construct the 120-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott on the site of the demolished Manatee Players theater directly across Main Street from City Hall.
The garage, which could cost roughly $10 million, is expected to have about 450 spaces for city employees, hotel guests and the public, Vice Mayor Patrick Roff said. Retail space will be available on the ground floor.
The two construction projects are in addition to other redevelopment in the vicinity.
The South Florida Museum, across 10th Street West from the police department portion of the municipal complex, is engaged in a fundraising campaign for an expansion.
The Twin Dolphin Marina on the Manatee River, directly across Barcarrota Boulevard from the city's office complex and the upcoming hotel, will expand to include 100-foot slips to accommodate larger yachts.
Should negotiations with NDC fail, the council selected the construction firm A. D. Morgan as its second choice. If its negotiations with Fawley Bryant fail, the city will work with Harvard Jolly Architecture on the garage design.
"Design is everything," Roff said, emphasizing the city does not want a typical parking garage.
The garage must be completed for the SpringHill Suites by Marriott to open.
"The hotel will not work without the parking," Roff said. "They have to end (construction) at the same time."
Roff said he hopes both projects will be completed by mid-2018.
In both decisions, Councilman Bemis Smith cast dissenting votes.
Smith said he compared the process by which firms made presentations during previous council meetings to "a beauty contest." He said the council should have received "more study and input from (city) staff" about the firms' qualifications.
Other council members, who also heard presentations from three other construction firms that did not rank among the final two selected, disagreed and said all of the companies submitting proposals were highly experienced and qualified.
Roff said he chose NDC because it is building the roughly $17 million hotel and can use the same "staging area" for its equipment to build the garage. That staging area for storing equipment and supplies will be on vacant land about a block away, across Business U.S. 41 and behind ArtCenter Manatee.
"My concern is getting this job done as quickly as possible," Roff said, stressing that he wants to minimize disruption for downtown merchants.
The exact footprint of the rectangular garage has not been determined but some exterior parking spaces will remain, Roff said.
