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~ Sunday, November 23,1997 Randy Franke County Commissioner Marion County 220 High Street N.E. Salem, OR 97301 ~1UV 2 6 1997 MARION CUU-~ tY BppRp OF COMM!SS GNFR~ n "~'~^y~~~ Sat~are (for vublic he~ri~t~. re. Dear Randy: I believe R.G. and Randy are public officials who, instead of criticism, deserve a great amount of credit for their initiative and courage to create and implement a very complex project, which requires the cooperation of multiple jurisdictions. The safe (and typical} approach would be to simply declare that such a joint use facility is not feasible. These gentlemen, with the unique leadership of Luis Caraballo and the Transit Board, and with the leadership of our County Commissioners, had the initiative to find a way. As you know, I am especially interested in the success of the joint-use facility, having been the consultant selects nator b ockhworkingt for Gordonf the County / Transit development of the Aoyagi, and with Randy Curtis. Then a ve s t skOdd ellows,lVlarionas the consultant to study concepts for altern Parkade, and a couple of other sites. In the interim after Greg left, I assisted the Site Selection committee with site aoard we de elo Sed an ar~chitectural downtown sites. When R.G. came on b P concept for what became "Courthouse Square". These plans were taken around advisory groups and subsequently were incorporated in an RFP for Developers. Only two proposals were received by Transit and the Counfiy. One bid was from Transit Board member D eS Bt offi' ce bu ldi g B South ad participated in the development of lus re Salem. His team was Pence-Kelley and Arbuckle Cosfiic. The low bid of $24.4M was from SABA Inc., the developers of Liberty Plaza and of Sunnyslope Shopping Center, and major facilities in Canada and North America. The SABA team was the same local L u~ 1 firm and Urban Daes gn Group (o on, with Gloria Jackson, my architect Vancouver B.C.). Note the savings to the taxpayer of $9.5M. What puzzles me, is why the less experienced developer was picked over the experienced developernatou fired~the expe sive developernyou did puzzles me further is why, whe y not automatically contact the low bidder, and negotiate a new contract formerly FALCON Architecture & Planning OFFICBS IN OR~G~ON Al\'DFW o~~'"ro6 -9424 FAX: (503) 363-&~88 P.O. Box 3215, Salem, Oregon 97302 P.O. Box 238, Tenino, Washington 98589 TELEPHONE: (360) 264-2113 FAJi: (360) 264-2~56