Hotel, restaurant and retail trade services

Tender description

Nottinghamshire County Council seeks expressions of interest from suitably experienced organisations to secure a commercial management and development partner for Rufford Abbey Country Park through Competitive Dialogue tender procedure. Each year the Park welcomes around 350 000 visitors and generates income close to 2 000 000 GBP. The Council's vision for the Park is: ‘A long-term, sustainable future for Rufford Abbey Country Park. To conserve (protect and enhance) the heritage of the historic abbey buildings and the surrounding parkland and to develop a modern and attractive visitor offer.’ To help deliver and maintain this vision, we wish to enter into a contractual arrangement with a partner develop a modern and attractive visitor offer, and to manage this commercial and visitor offer, the Council will continue to manage the Park's parkland and garden areas. The partner will need to demonstrate its ability to contribute to our vision effectively and sustainably, based upon a financially sound long-term operational model that is attractive and acceptable to the Council. The Council's specific requirements are that: — A visitor offer which operates daily throughout the year, and as a minimum support and accommodates current visitor numbers; — Demonstration that any capital investment in new/improved facilities has a minimum life span of 10 years; — Ensuring continuing free public access to the Rufford Abbey Country Park; — Effectively supporting all-ability visitor access; — Effectively supporting the management of visitor impact on the park in general and the historic remains within and around the Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM) in particular providing appropriate interpretation/visitor information; — Demonstrating environmental good practice in respect of the operation of the facilities. The Council's ambition is for the Park to be operated with as small a revenue budget subsidy as is practicable and, in the short-term, to reduce the Councils expenditure by 300 000 GBP per annum. Management of the Park's parkland and gardens will be retained by the Council. The partner will manage the commercial offer only. The Council has identified a capital contribution of up to 1 000 000 GBP towards the development of enhanced/remodelled visitor facilities. The Council wishes to minimise its capital contribution, and is therefore keen to maximise the contribution of partners/other external sources of funding. If the Council's capital is used, the Council requires a demonstrable financial return and best value for this investment. The Council considers that there may be scope for appropriate development on-site in the form of underused buildings that may support and accommodate additional/reshaped visitor provision, e.g. for holiday accommodation or additional play facilities. Notwithstanding heritage constraints, the Council is keen to explore the opportunities for such development, should partners wish to consider capital investment to improve the visitor offer and generate additional income for the site.