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Consideration of request by Finance Director for approval of a contract with Prism Technical for the creation and monitoring of a Procurement Equity Participation Plan (Participation Plan) for the Mandel Group’s Harlow and Hem multi-unit residential proposal, in an amount not to exceed $86,937.00
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Submitted by:
John Ruggini
Department:
Finance Department
A. Issue
The Procurement Equity Policy requires Tax Increment Financing projects include required Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and Distressed Zip Code hiring inclusion. A contract with Prism Technical for the creation and monitoring of a Participation Plan to facilitate meeting this policy for the Mandel Group “Harlow and Hem” multi-unit residential project at the Blanchard Street parking lot property as well as 7463 Harwood Ave and 7460 Blanchard Street is recommended for approval.
B. Background/Options
The City of Wauwatosa approved a term sheet with the Mandel Group for financial assistance through Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to assist with financing the construction of a 157-unit market rate apartment building. Construction is scheduled to begin in summer 2025 and last 20-30 months.
Included in the proposed term sheet is the requirement that the Developer hire or sub-contract with firms registered as Disadvantaged Business Enterprises with Milwaukee County or the State of Wisconsin Department of Transportation to complete 25% of the construction and professional services work. In addition, the developer is required to set a goal of hiring 25% of their additional construction work force from distressed zip codes within Milwaukee County.
City staff do not have capacity or technical knowledge to do this type of monitoring. In 2021, three firms with experience in southeast Wisconsin were solicited to provide proposals. Only Prism Technical submitted a proposal. The City has worked with Prism on three projects through completion including the MSP project at the Mayfair Collection for which a final report was provided on December 3, 2024. Given the excellent work Prism has completed to date and the desire for continuity, staff asked Prism to submit a proposal for this project as well which is attached. Prism is the premier firm that does this type of work with an excellent track record of working collaboratively with developers, construction firms and labor unions to ensure a best effort to reach these goals since 1995. Prism has a lifetime achievement record exceeding workforce and business diversity goals/requirements of nearly 98% ‐ on over 40 multi‐million‐dollar projects in WI, MI, PA, and TX. They have worked with numerous governments including the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public School and on such high-profile projects as The Deer District and Northwestern Mutual downtown tower. They have also worked with many of the regions prominent developers and are themselves a DBE firm.
Prism brings the knowledge and networks to provide more than just monitoring services. They develop a “Participation and Inclusion Plan” with the developer based on their in-depth knowledge of what DBE capacity is available in each of the trade disciplines required to complete the project. In addition, working with Prism on this TIF project will have the ancillary benefit of helping City staff identify DBE firms that could be utilized on non-TIF projects and help our continued procurement equity goals. Prism also has excellent contacts within the workforce development community which will be especially helpful as this is a non-union project which makes meeting the workforce development goals more difficult.
As the contract exceeds $50,000, it requires Common Council approval. The total contract assuming a 30-month project per the approved term sheet would be $86,937. If all goes smoothly, Mandel is projecting a 20-month project for which the Prism fee would be $24,205 less. This is on a time and materials basis and not-to-exceed. In addition, the hourly billable rates are included in the proposal which are competitive with other consultants.
Lastly, with the assistance of Prism, the City of Wauwatosa and the City of Milwaukee have reached tentative agreement subject to Common Council approvals to allow the City of Wauwatosa access to Milwaukee’s self-developed workforce tracking system. This will result in approximately 50% savings in the cost incurred on prior projects for third-party software costs.
C. Fiscal Impact
The cost of the contract is $86,937. This on a not-to-exceed basis and will be billed as time and materials. These costs will be funded by the increment generated by the Mandel project.
D. Recommendation
I recommend approval of the contract with Prism Technical. I also recommend a level three fund transfer to establish a budget for the contract to be paid for with TIF 11 funds.