Accommodation management services

Tender description

The University of York (the ‘University’) is seeking to appoint a partner to help it to meet the future accommodation needs of its students. This will involve the potential delivery of c. 2 000 bed spaces through a demand risk partnership over one or more phases. The University is finalising a masterplan for the Heslington Campus to incorporate additional student accommodation. The University envisages that the appointed party will design, build, finance, operate, and maintain student accommodation working in partnership with the University. The University desires the first phase of accommodation (described further in section II.2.4) to be available by September 2020. The University is undertaking a procurement competition based on the Competitive Dialogue (CD) Procedure to select a Partner for this procurement. The selected Partner will be required to Design, Build, Finance and Operate a first phase of development on Campus East, comprising circa 1 200 bed spaces. Subsequent Phases totalling circa 800 bed spaces could be delivered by the selected Partner in one or more Phases, however the selected Partner will not have exclusivity in relation to development of further residences and the University may deliver these separately. Presently it is expected that the first Phase will be situated at the western end of Campus East. It is intended that the University will enter into a Strategic Partnering Agreement with the Provider to potentially deliver any subsequent Phases identified, which are expected to be on or close to both Campus West and Campus East. It is likely that, if the University decides to deliver the additional Phases through the Strategic Partnering Agreement, it will wish to agree and draw-down these Phases within the initial 5 years of the Strategic Partnering Agreement. The CD competition will comprise an initial selection stage, following which a short-list of three bidders will then be invited to participate in a dialogue phase culminating in the submission of final tenders. The dialogue phase will involve a series of dialogue sessions followed by a call to submit final tenders. During the process there will be an initial briefing session and it is anticipated there will be a programme of formal dialogue meetings scheduled with each of the short-listed bidders. Additional meetings may also be arranged on an ad hoc basis, as required. The successful Partner must be experienced in the design, build, financing, operation and maintenance of purpose built student accommodation. This must be evidenced as part of responses to the Selection Questionnaire (SQ). The University will provide initial scheme design to a level equivalent to RIBA Stage 1. The successful Partner will be required to satisfy themselves of the robustness of this initial work before developing the scheme design together with proposals to build, fund, operate and maintain the new development over an operational term of circa 50 years following practical completion. It is important to the University that the new development being procured through this process is classified as ‘off balance sheet’ from the University's perspective. The successful Partner will be expected to assume full occupancy demand risk for the new residences and will be responsible for providing hard and soft facilities management services. The University will maintain pastoral responsibility for its students accommodated in the residences along with marketing and administration of student applications, including room allocation. The key driver behind the University's requirement for the development is to bring much needed additional capacity of modern affordable student accommodation for the University. Further information can be found in the SQ and Information Memorandum (IM) that interested parties can download from https://in-tendhost.co.uk/york/aspx/Home.