City of Carmel-by-the-Sea is soliciting proposals from qualified persons and organizations to enter into a lease agreement for theatrical programming and facility management of  the Forest Theater.

Proposals must be postmarked no later than Friday, May 28, 2021 at 5:00 p.m.

The City will hold a mandatory pre-proposal site tour Friday, April 23 beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the Forest Theater Site. Masks and social distancing will be required at all times. 

Scope of Services

The City has prepared an outline of required services in Section VI: SCOPE OF SERVICES, of this Request for Proposals (“RFP”). 

Requests for Clarification of the RFP

If any Proposer  has any question regarding the meaning of any part of this RFP, or finds discrepancies in or omissions from this RFP, the Proposer shall submit via electronic mail a written request for clarification to the City Clerk, Britt Avrit, bavrit@ci.carmel.ca.us. The deadline to submit questions is Friday, May 7, 2021 by 5:00 p.m. All questions and City responses shall be posted here by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 14, 2021. 

Proposal Instructions

Instructions for the submission of proposals are set forth throughout this RFP. 

City’s Review of Proposals

All proposals deemed responsive shall be reviewed and evaluated by the City in order to determine which proposal best meets the City’s needs. The criteria by which to evaluate proposals is set forth in this RFP. The City reserves the right to extend an invitation for interview, to reject any and all proposals and / or waive any irregularities in any proposal.

Award of Agreement

The City currently anticipates awarding a negotiated lease agreement for the Management of the Forest Theater in the Summer/Fall of 2021. A copy of the City’s Professional Services Agreement form is attached in Appendix 1. No proposal or lease agreement for the Forest Theater shall be binding upon the City until the Agreement is signed by the selected Proposer and executed by the City. 

Supporting Documents

• Request for Proposals
• Site Plan
• Seating Plan
• Enlarged Plans
• Survey Results March 3-24, 2021
• Community Activities Commission Workshop March 22, 2021
• RFP Timeline
• ADA Transition Plan

Questions Received and City Responses

Q. Will the City be replacing the audience lighting that Cleve said the Project Manager took out, and could that be added to the “Luxtron” system? 

A. The City has no plans to replace the audience lighting. There is a possibility that lighting could be added to the Luxtron System, but that is not guaranteed. 

Q. Will the Stage Lighting on loan still be available from the Forest Theater Foundation, or will the City be providing that to prevent liability issues before handing it over to the Proposer? If the City, could that also be included in the Luxtron system? 

A. The proposer is encouraged to work with the Forest Theater Foundation to determine this, as they are independent of the City. 

Q. Will the City be hooking up the gas line to the fire pits so that users can once again have fire for warmth and ambiance during use? 

A. The City and a volunteer group recently performed due diligence to upgrade the wood-burning fire pits to natural gas burning.  Unfortunately, there is not enough gas available at that location (no more than a barbeque grill level of heat). The project has been deferred indefinitely.

Q. Will you be posting the ADA recommendations that are still outstanding?  

A. Infrastructure within the Forest Theater that do not meet current ADA requirements are found on pages 69 through 79 in the ADA Transition Plan. Only a few items have been upgraded to be ADA-compliant in the recent few years.  The selected proposer, as the facility manager, would negotiate upgrading one item to be ADA-compliant during the annual Capital Improvement Plan. The cost for these annual improvements should be split 50-50 between the City and Proposer.  The least costly and/or least disruptive projects would be anticipated.

Q. Is the truss that is set up on stage permanent, who hold the inspection certificates, and what are the load limits on the stage floor?(So we know how much else can be accommodated)  

A. The City’s Building Department has structural calculations, plans, and approved permits regarding the loads currently on the stage.  Should the selected proposer desire to increase the loads on the stage, new plans and calculations would need to be submitted to the Building Department; however, the City would provide copies of the existing calculations, plans, and permits for reference. 

Q. Will the Proposer, if affiliated with an historical user group, be able to eschew charging their own user group while charging others? 

A. Yes.

NOTE: The questions below were received by the City after the deadline due to technological issues.