Youth Sports Park Development and Operations

Pinellas County (County) is currently seeking a partner to develop and operate a youth sports complex. The County intends to support construction and operation of the youth sports park in a meaningful public-private partnership, given that the site sits above a decommissioned County-owned landfill. The scope of the public-private partnership will be determined in coordination with the private partner as part of this solicitation process.

The County envisions a new community asset that provides high-quality open space and youth sports facilities to local, regional, and national tournament audiences. The park should both create new sports amenities for residents and generate tourism activity for the County by operating tournaments that draw new families to Pinellas County.

The site, described further in this solicitation, is centrally located in the middle of the Tampa Bay Area’s 3.2 million residents and near both major international airports. There is a large and growing youth sports tourism industry in the southeast that the County hopes to capture a greater share of that tourism travel.

This solicitation is Phase 1 of a two-phase solicitation process. In this phase, the County requests information on the experience of respondents or teams (composed of a primary respondent and subconsultant(s))and preliminary development proposals for a youth sports complex on the site. In Phase 2, the County will select finalists from Phase 1 to submit detailed site designs, financial proposals, and operating plans for further negotiations.

RFP Phase 2 It is presently contemplated that the RFP will contain:
A. A description of the RFP process and schedule;
B. A description of the County’s rights;
C. Proposal submission requirements;
D. A description of the evaluation and selection process;
E. A Service Agreement;
F. A Construction Agreement;
G. The Proposal Forms required to be submitted in the Proposal; and
H. A description of the technical data available for the Proposer’s review and instructions for
visiting the Toytown site.

HR&A Advisors has been supporting Pinellas County to bring to market a solicitation to develop and operate a youth sports park above a decommissioned County-owned landfill, the “Toytown” site. HR&A completed review of previous planning studies regarding the site and demand for tournament sports facilities and used these findings to form a solicitation strategy, that procures the best-suited development and operating partner for Pinellas County. HR&A Advisors anticipate that most submissions will include both a primary respondent (“Respondent”) and subconsultant(s)– together forming a team.