SOLICITATION NOTICE
M -- A concessions business opportunity for interpretive boat tours, retail, and other visitor services at the Flamingo and Gulf Coast districts of Everglades National Park. Question and answers from site visit -May 28 & 29, 2008.
- Notice Date
- 7/3/2008
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- Contracting Office
- SER - National Park Service Contracting & Property Mgt.100 Alabama St., SW Atlanta GA 30303
- ZIP Code
- 30303
- Solicitation Number
- CC-EVER002-08
- Response Due
- 7/30/2008
- Archive Date
- 7/3/2009
- Point of Contact
- Cherrie Brice Concessions Mgt. Specialist 4045623108654 cherrie_brice@nps.gov;
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- To: All Recipients of the prospectus, EVER002-08; a concessions business opportunity for interpretive boat tours, retail, and other visitor services at the Flaming and Gulf Coast districts of Everglades National Park-Question and Aswers from site visits May 27 and 28th 2008. Question 1.May we receive the Current Concessioners' reported 2007 gross receipts for Flamingo and Gulf Coast, which gives us the information contained within the Historical Revenue Breakdown schedules in Exhibit 21 and Exhibit 22 in the Business Opportunity section of the prospectus?NPS RESPONSE: The current Flamingo Concessioner's reported gross receipts for 2007 were $1,133,213. The current Gulf Coast Concessioner's reported gross receipts for 2007 were $1,331,961. Question 2. May we receive the breakdown of Utility Costs (other than water) for the Current Concessioners (Flamingo and Gulf Coast) for the most recent year available (e.g. fiscal year 2007 or 2006)?NPS RESPONSE: Specific Concessioner Utility costs for prior years are not available. Question 3. Where does the Gulf Coast Operation dispose of effluent from the tour boats? NPS RESPONSE: Effluent from the vessels utilized at Gulf Coast is disposed of at a NPS operated pump out station at the marina basin. The Concessioner will not be charged for this service. Question 4.Will the Concessioner have the latitude of changing fuel prices without going through the Service's formal rate approval process? NPS RESPONSE: The NPS Rate Approval guide was provided to all Offerors as Appendix E of the Prospectus. The National Park Service is required by law to approve all rates charged to the public by Concessioners and to ensure that those rates are comparable to similar goods and services provided outside of the park. The Concessioner is responsible for providing documentation to justify the rate increase. The National Park Service will make every effort to respond quickly to these rate requests. The National Park Service is currently researching how the private sector is handling rapidly changing fuel costs for services. Question 5Due to the volatility of Fuel cost, are there separate rate approval procedures for fuel, and what would those procedures be? NPS RESPONSEPlease see the NPS Response to Question number 4 above. Question 6Can we obtain the detail of Exhibit 23, Future Revenue Estimates? NPS RESPONSEThe National Park Service conducted its own analysis of the financial feasibility of the potential opportunity. The National Park Service does not release this analysis to the public as they contain, among other things, certain confidential business and commercial information and reflects the internal deliberations of the agency. Offerors are responsible for producing their own prospective financial analyses and may not rely on the Service projections. Question 7.What were the calculations for Exhibit 23, Future Revenue Estimates? NPS RESPONSEPlease see the response to Question 6 above. Question 8Regarding the TIKI bar at Flamingo, is the Service anticipating a full bar, or beer and wine only? NPS RESPONSEThe revenue and expense projections for the Tiki bar at Flamingo are based on a full service (i.e. including liquor) bar. Question 9What are the current rates NPS will charge the contractor for water, sewer, electric, natural gas, propane, etc. at both locations? NPS RESPONSEPage 23 of the Business Opportunity discusses the utilities provided by the National Park Service at Flamingo. Additionally, Utility Responsibilities are discussed in Exhibit A (Operating Plan, sections 3A and 3B). The concessioner is responsible for contracting with outside entities for electrical and telephone services at Gulf Coast and Flamingo and for propane at Flamingo. Natural gas is not available at either location. As the Business Opportunity and Operating Plan state, the Service provides water and sewer service at Flamingo. The most current rate is $12.63 per 1000 gallons. This rate will be updated in October 2008; however, the increase will not exceed 25%. Water and sewer costs for the current concessioner's operation over the past season (approximately end of November 2007 through April 2008) have varied from $400.00 to $600.00 per month. Water and sewer service at Gulf Coast is provided by the city of Everglades City and billed directly to NPS. The current concessioner uses a small amount of this water for washing vessels. There is no charge for this water use at this time. As noted in Exhibit A, section 3B (3) (b), however, the Service may, at its discretion, separately meter the water used by the new concessioner and charge for this use. Question 10Which utilities are provided by NPS and charged to the contractor and which utilities does the contractor procure for both locations? NPS RESPONSE: Please see the NPS response to this question above. Question 11Is swimming allowed at Flamingo? NPS RESPONSE: Park regulations state that "Swimming or bathing is prohibited in all canals, ponds, fresh water lakes, marked channels, and boat basins." Question 12Do the tides have an impact on operations as far as docks and boating routes?NPS RESPONSETides at Flamingo are subject to changes due to weather as are all tides. However, generally, the impacts of tide changes have limited effects on operations. These effects are most likely to occur, but are not limited to, the period from late February to March when a southwest wind can drain Florida Bay to a level lower than normal. However this period could be longer or shorter depending on weather circumstances. The effects of tides are most noticeable in the case of sailing tour boats, which ride lower in the water than vessels without a keel, and on rental of dock slips b/c when the tide is lower than normal large vessels may not be able to access the docks. Tides do not affect the Gulf Coast operations as they are currently structured. Question 13Please provide a copy of current subcontracts for services that are in place. If not available, please list the current providers of subcontracted services and the services they provide at both locations. NPS RESPONSEFlamingo is the only area where subcontracted visitor services have been provided. These included chartered fishing, sailboat tours, and supply and maintenance of kayaks. Copies of the contracts between these suppliers and the Existing Flamingo Concessioner are not available; however, the operators were Dean Steffen and Neal Baro (chartered fishing; Rob Temple (sailboat tours); and Florida Bay Outfitters (kayaks). However, per Section 17 (c) of the draft Contract, subconcession or other third party agreements, including management agreements, for the provision of visitor services required and/or authorized under the Contract are not permitted. Question 14Are businesses, other than by subcontract with the concessionaire, allowed to provide their services at either location? For example, launching kayak tours, or picking up kayak patrons, other than those of the concessionaire?NPS RESPONSEAs set forth in Appendices A and B to the Prospectus, current law and regulations do not permit any concessioner to have an exclusive right to provide services; however, the Service does not anticipate any other concessions during the term of this Contract for the services covered by this Prospectus. However, commercial use authorizations (CUAs) are allowed. Currently, CUA holders provide guided canoe trips within the Park at both Flamingo and Gulf Coast; however, these trips start outside the Park. A number of charter boat captains also provide guided fishing trips, which also start outside of the Park. As noted in the response to question number five above, subconcession or other third party agreements, including management agreements, for the provision of visitor services required and/or authorized under this Contract are not permitted.Question 15The prospectus has identified that the National Park Service owns the existing boat, Pelican, which is kept at Flamingo District. Is this boat available for use by the new concessioner?NPS RESPONSE:Contract Exhibit D (Assigned Government Personal Property) lists the Pelican on page D-2 as assigned to the concessioner at Flamingo. Question 16The area behind the Gulf Coast District offices is a likely place for storage of canoes and kayaks. If this space is available, how would the concessioner get these personal watercraft from this storage area to the launch point with the back gate and maintenance building seeming to block access? NPS RESPONSEAfter further research, the Service has determined that a change is needed to the Gulf Coast District land assignment map which will change the location for canoe/kayak storage. The changed map will be provided as an errata to the EVER002-08 Prospectus. Question 17How many canoes are rented at the 9-mile Pond during the months of December through April, and May through November? NPS RESPONSEThe existing Flamingo Concessioner does not record their canoe rentals by location. The Concessioner rents a combination of 9-mile Pond, Back Country and Bay Side locations by the hour, half day and full day. During December, January, February, March and April of 2007 the existing Flamingo Concessioner rented 2,239 canoes in the Flamingo District. For May, June, July, August, September, October and November they rented 701 canoes. Question 18What point-of-sale system is in use in the Flamingo District? NPS RESPONSEThe existing Flamingo Concessioner uses a Logicel POS32 point of sale system. Question 19Can the National Park Service provide the utility costs for Flamingo District? NPS RESPONSESpecific Concessioner Utility costs for prior years are not available. Question 20Can any of the existing Flamingo District buildings that are now closed be used for storage or other purposes if the new concessioner were to fix them up? NPS RESPONSEAll of the real property improvements assigned to the Concessioner are identified on page C-1 of Exhibit C. Question 21Is it possible that the "left-over" merchandise at Flamingo District is out of date or beyond its useful life span? If so, is the new concessioner required to purchase these items and if so, how can the new concessioner dispose of materials that were purchased. NPS RESPONSEThe Business Opportunity, page 25 under Merchandise Inventory, states that Section 12 of the existing contracts requires the new Concessioner to purchase the existing merchandise inventory from the existing Concessioner. The process for purchasing this inventory is outlined in the existing contracts, which are included as Appendix I, and included in the CD that accompanies the Prospectus. Question 22Will the concessioner be required to maintain the National Park Service-owned personal property at Flamingo District? NPS RESPONSESection 8. (e) (2) of the Draft Contract states, "The Concessioner shall be accountable to the Director for the government personal property assigned to it and shall be responsible for maintaining the property as necessary to keep it in good and operable condition."
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- Place of Performance
- Address: Everglades City, FL
- Zip Code: 33034
- Zip Code: 33034
- Record
- SN01607477-W 20080705/080703220535-f33f0db82baec9a7e3c6287b2f804484 (fbodaily.com)
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