550-25_Bid_Document.pdf

Request for Proposal No. 550-25

Section 1: General Information

1.1: Purpose

The State of Ohio is soliciting proposals from highly qualified and sufficiently capable vendor(s) to provide food service and café operations for the State of Ohio Hilltop Complex, including the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS). The selected Proposer(s) shall provide a variety of healthy, fresh, and nutritious food and beverages at the café and ensure that the employees and visitors of the Hilltop Complex consistently receive a variety of high-quality food and excellent customer-oriented service. The State’s interpretation of food service and cafe operation may include but is not limited to the following: daily breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks, beverages, grab-n-go food, and catering for conferences and special events. At no time will alcoholic beverages be served during the daily food service operation. State satisfaction must be a priority in the food quality, pricing, menu selection, and catering services. If a suitable offer is made in response to this RFP, the Department may draw up a contract to have the selected vendor perform all or part of the requested services.

1.2: Overview of the RFP Process

This RFP provides details on what is required to submit a Proposal for the services, how the State will evaluate the Proposals, and what will be required of the vendor in performing the services. If a suitable offer is made in response to this RFP, the State may execute a contract with the selected vendor to perform all or part of the requested services. The intent of this Request for Proposal is to select the most qualified and highest scoring Proposer(s) to provide these services, while promoting the greatest extent of competition that is practicable.

1.3: Background

The State of Ohio Hilltop Complex consists of the headquarters buildings for both the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), and the Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS). Within the buildings, there are numerous meeting spaces, a 300+ seat auditorium and when fully staffed, approximately 1,250 employees.

Over the previous twenty-plus (20+) years, the café has continuously provided food services to the Hilltop Complex employees and visitors through contracts with several vendors. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, operations were suspended in March 2020 while employees moved to remote work locations. In September 2021, employees of the Hilltop Complex began to return to work on a limited schedule of two

(2) days per week, with most staff selecting preferred workdays each week. At that time, the previous vendor reopened on a limited basis until mutual termination of the agreement in January 2022. Between January 2022 and March 2023, several efforts were undertaken to provide food service to the facility; twice weekly food trucks and twice weekly being serviced by Fooda. Beginning in April 2023, a contract was signed with a vendor who has provided food service operations continuously through April 2024 when they declined to renew their lease. Because the food service and café operations are specific to the Hilltop Complex, the State has elected to contract the food service and café operations for the State of Ohio Hilltop Complex to allow the Department to focus on their core services.

1.4: Project Location

The services described in this RFP shall be conducted at the location listed below:

ODOT Jerry Wray Building 1980 W. Broad Street Lower Level Café Columbus, Ohio 43223

Food Service Area (Back of House and Serving Areas) Approximately 6,237 SF

Café Dining Area Approximately 5,632 SF with Approximate Seating Capacity of 300 people

1.5: Scope of Services

The Proposer shall:

1.5.1: Provide a variety of healthy, fresh, and nutritious food at the café and ensure that the employees and visitors of the Hilltop Complex consistently receive a variety of high quality food and excellent customer oriented service.

1.5.2: Provide their own staff and be responsible for all workers’ compensation, insurance, submitting unemployment, disability, workers compensation and social security contributions and all other applicable taxes.

1.5.3: Work within the current configuration of the fixed equipment, utilities, cold storage space, and walls.

Reconfiguration of the current food service space and café dining area is outside the scope of this RFP.

1.5.4: Operate the food service and café as a private business, five (5) days per week, year-round, excluding all State observed holidays listed below. The hours of operation will generally be Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. with breakfast and lunch offerings. The Proposer may recommend additional/alternative operating hours with prior approval.

New Year’s Day January 1st Martin Luther King Day The 3rd Monday in January

Presidents Day The 3rd Monday in February Memorial Day The last Monday in May

Juneteenth June 19th Independence Day July 4th

Labor Day The 1st Monday in September Columbus Day The 2nd Monday in October Veterans Day November 11th

Thanksgiving Day The 4th Thursday in November Christmas Day December 25th

1.5.5: Be responsible for obtaining required Franklin County Health Department permits and any other federal, State, or local required licenses and/or permits.

1.5.6: Coordinate with the State on the daily and preventative maintenance plans for provided or replacement equipment.

1.5.7: Be responsible for keeping all café workspaces and service areas clean and sanitary. Kitchen sanitation will meet the Ohio Uniform Food Safety Code as defined in the Ohio Revised Code Section 3717.05.

1.5.8: Maintain adequate equipment, inventory, stock and supplies necessary for the efficient provision of food services.

1.5.9: Cooperatively coordinate with Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities/Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired Business Enterprise Program (OOD/BSVI) to ensure products offered within the café do not violate the agreement between the State and OOD/BSVI. The list of prohibited sale items will be provided to proposers upon request.

1.5.10: Include a thorough description of their proposed compensation model to the State including all considerations that Proposer believes are required to make this a successful agreement for both the Proposer and the State, including but not limited incentives and goals. The payment model is intended to offset expenses incurred by the State in connection to the operation of the State of Ohio Hilltop Complex food service and café operations.

1.5.11: Contractor is responsible for all other costs of providing food services including, but not limited to:

• Food products, tableware, and supplies

• Food service space reconfiguration, subject to prior approval by the Agency

• Maintenance of Contractor-owned equipment

• Required food service licenses.

• Required insurance.

• Custodial and maintenance services for food service area space (preparation, serving, and office) if used, and bus services in dining area.

• Initial cleaning of equipment

• Contractor’s personnel expenses

• Communication connections

• Equipment or software required by Contractor to conduct business.

1.6: The State will provide for vendor’s use in performing services pursuant to this RFP at no cost to the vendor:

• Food service space including areas for preparation, serving, storage, dining, and a small administrative office.

• Electricity

• Heating/Air Conditioning

• Water/Sewer

• Natural Gas

• Trash Removal Services

• Snow removal of building receiving area

• Building access and food service area access

• Dining area furniture which includes chairs and tables

• Existing kitchen sundries

• Custodial services for complete dining area

• Pest control for food service and dining areas

• Annual inspection and cleaning of kitchen hoods and fire protection systems

• Maintenance or replacement of existing State-owned equipment

NOTE: THE STATE DOES NOT WARRANT THE OPERATIONAL CONDITION OF ANY STATE-OWNED EQUIPMENT

1.7: The State shall have no direct control over the employees of the Proposer. Any provisions for such control shall be exercised only through the Proposer or the person assigned as the Proposer’s Food Service Manager; however, the Proposer shall comply with reasonable requests of the State to remove and replace employees objectionable to the State. All Proposer personnel assigned to the State of Ohio Hilltop Complex food service and café operations who may have access to the facility may be subjected to a routine background check, at State expense. The Proposer personnel may be required to complete a “Facility Access Form” furnished by the State. Failure to pass the background check will result in immediate dismissal of the resource, whereupon the Proposer must submit a replacement resource with equal or better qualifications before reporting to State of Ohio Hilltop Complex

Section 2: Proposal Requirements

2.1: Mandatory Vendor Qualification

To be considered for the contract expected to result from this RFP, the State requires that vendors shall meet, at minimum, the following qualification requirement:

• A minimum of five (5) years’ experience in substantially similar commercial food service and/or café operations

Vendors which do not meet the above qualification will be disqualified from further consideration.

2.2: Cover Letter

The proposer shall prepare and include a cover letter for the proposal indicating your commitment to quality and intent to adhere to the State’s interests as stated in this RFP. The cover letter required for this response should be signed by the individual authorized to bind the vendor.

2.3: Description of the Organization

The State desires to understand the ownership and organizational structure of the vendor submitting the response, to gain insight into their business operation. The organizational structure must be described, identifying the entity that would enter into any agreement with the State. An organizational chart should be developed with enough detail to indicate a chain of authority from the president or comparable chief executive down through the person who will be directly responsible for project delivery and contract adherence.

Responses should indicate the following:

• Number of years in business

• Number of years of experience with providing the type of services sought by the RFP.

• Description of the Proposer’s experience with previous and present contracts within the scope of the subject of the RFP

• A list of all food services like those sought by this RFP which the Proposer has provided to other businesses or governmental entities.

• Letters of reference from three (3) previous or current customers and/or clients knowledgeable of the Proposer’s performance in providing like services described in this RFP including a contact person, telephone number, and email address for each reference. The State, at its discretion, reserves the right to contact references.

• The proposer must list the people who prepared the proposal, including their titles and the name, phone number, email address and mailing address of a contact person who has the authority to answer questions regarding the proposal.

2.4: Proposed Food Service Model

The proposer must offer a variety of healthy and traditional menu selections.

• Provide an overall “conceptual” vision (what and how) for the provision of food services at The State of Ohio Hilltop Complex.

• Describe the quality of the proposed services.

• Provide suggested operating hours.

• Describe how food service quality control is performed.

2.5: Food Items and Estimated Pricing

Proposers shall list the types of food, drink and or snack food items they would intend to provide as part of the Café operation. A sample menu should be provided.

2.6: Marketing Plan

The proposer must provide and maintain a plan to market the food service operation.

• Describe proposed plan to promote the State of Ohio Hilltop Complex Food Service Site operation.

• Describe proposed pricing models which are competitive with similar products in nearby commercial food service locations.

• Describe how you will display product pricing.

2.7: Implementation Plan

The proposer must provide a start-up plan including timelines for the operation of the State of Ohio Hilltop Complex Food Service Site.

• Proposer must identify start-up activities, responsibilities, and dates.

• Describe recommended implementation strategy including on-site coordination and support services.

• Describe Proposer’s experience with installations similar in size.

2.8: Staffing Plan

The proposer must provide and maintain a staffing plan.

• Describe a comprehensive staffing plan for managing the State of Ohio Hilltop Complex Food Service Site.

• Describe relevant experience of Proposer food service management staff and include resumes (e.g., manager, caterer).

• Describe a plan for assurance of high quality customer service.

2.9: Compensation Model

Proposer shall present a detailed explanation of their proposed compensation model to the State including all considerations that Proposer believes are required to make this a successful agreement for both the Proposer and the State, including but not limited incentives and goals.

2.10: Optional Services

The State is interested in having the Proposer offer a variety of ancillary food/catering services to the staff working at the State of Ohio Hilltop Complex. Indicate Proposer’s ability, capacity, and a plan to provide such services.

2.11: Exceptions/Deviations In this section, the vendor shall provide a comprehensive detailed list of their requested exceptions and/or deviations from the Scope of Services of the RFP.

2.12: Vendor Attachments of Appendices (as necessary)

Section 3: Preliminary Proposal Timetable

FIRM DATES EVENT/ACTIVITY

May 21, 2024 ODOT Office of Contracts releases RFP

- RFP becomes active; vendors may submit inquiries for RFP clarification.

May 30, 2024, 10:00 AM Mandatory Site Visit for All Proposers

June 6, 2024, 1:00 PM Vendor Q & A Request Period closes

- No further RFP clarification inquiries or site visit requests will be accepted.

June 6, 2024, 3:00 PM Answers to all vendor inquiries posted.

June 13, 2024, 1:00 PM Deadline for vendors to submit proposals to the State.

- Late proposals will not be considered. No exceptions will be made.

ESTIMATED DATES EVENT/ACTIVITY

June 17, 2024 State begins evaluation process

TBD Oral Interviews and Recommendation for Award

The State reserves the right to revise this tentative schedule at any time in the best interest of the State and/or to comply with federal and State of Ohio procurement procedures and regulations, with notice to prospective vendors.

Section 4: Mandatory Site Visit

A site visit is required for this RFP, to certify knowledge of the existing conditions prior to submitting proposals. The site visit will be held at 10:00 AM, Thursday, May 30, 2024, at the site. At this site visit, Proposers will have the chance to ask questions, tour the facilities and examine the equipment and sundries included within the space.

Section 5: Proposal Submission and Format

5.1: Proposal Submission

The proposal must be prepared and submitted in accordance with instructions found in this section and must be received by the State no later than 1:00 PM, Thursday, June 13, 2024. Proposals received after this date and time will not be reviewed. Material mailed or submitted separately from the proposal packet will not be accepted or added to the proposal by ODOT staff.

All materials submitted in accordance with this solicitation become the property of the State of Ohio and shall not be returned. All materials submitted in accordance with this solicitation shall remain confidential until Successful Proposer(s) are selected after Phase II at which time all submitted information becomes part of the public record.

5.2: Proposal Format

In developing their proposals, vendors must fully and appropriately plan and price their proposed solution including all necessary preparatory and intervening steps, regardless of whether those steps are delineated in this RFP.

It is mandatory that the vendor’s Proposal be organized in the same order and contain the components outlined in Section 2: Proposal Requirements of this RFP, and that wherever appropriate, sections of the proposal should refer by section number to those RFP requirements to which they correspond. Any other information thought to be relevant, but not applicable to a specific RFP section may be included in the proposal and so marked as an additional tab. The State reserves the right not to review submitted appendices which include information or materials not required in the RFP.

A copy of the Proposal Score Sheet is provided as attachment B to this RFP. Vendors are strongly encouraged to use the score sheet to check their proposals for quality, compliance, and completeness prior to submission.

Section 6: Criteria for Proposal Evaluation and Selection

6.1: Scoring of Proposals

The State reserves the right to contract with the vendor that best demonstrates the ability to meet requirements as specified in this RFP. Vendors submitting a response will be evaluated based on the capacity and experience demonstrated in their Proposal. All qualifying proposals will be reviewed and scored by a Proposal Review Team (PRT), comprised of staff from the State. Vendors should not assume that the review team members are familiar with any current or past work activities undertaken by the proposer(s) with the

State. Proposals containing assumptions, lack of enough detail, poor organization, lack of proofreading and unnecessary use of self-promotional claims will be evaluated accordingly.

Selection of the vendor will be based upon the criteria described in this RFP. The PRT reserves the right to reject all proposals, in whole or in part, received in response to this request. The PRT may waive minor defects that are not material when the intent is not unreasonably obscured. In scoring the proposals, the State will score in three (3) phases:

6.1.1: Phase I Review – Mandatory Vendor Qualification

To be fully reviewed and scored, proposals submitted must pass Phase I Review as required in the Proposal Score Sheet. Any “no” for the listed Phase I criteria will eliminate a proposal from further consideration.

Please refer to Attachment B, Proposal Score Sheet for a complete listing of initial disqualifiers.

6.1.2: Phase II Review – Criteria for Scoring the Proposal

The PRT will then score those qualifying Proposals, not eliminated in Phase I Review, by assessing how well the vendor meets the requirements as specified in the RFP. Using the Proposal Score Sheet, the PRT will read, review, discuss and reach consensus on the final score for each qualifying Proposal.

6.1.3: Phase III Review – Short List Oral Interviews

The PRT may schedule oral interviews for those proposers not eliminated in Phase II Review. If deemed necessary by the PRT, interviews shall be conducted on a structured basis with a fixed list of interview questions.

Interview Structure:

• Interviews will be limited to thirty (30) minutes.

• Each Proposer will have five (5) minutes for their opening statement and twenty five (25) minutes for questions and answers.

• Question and answer will be limited to the scope of services of the RFP and the Proposer’s submitted proposal.

• Interview questions will be established and provided to proposers prior to the oral interviews.

The vendor offering the proposal most advantageous to the State, as determined by the processes and requirements established in this RFP, will be recommend to the Director of ODOT (or the Director’s designee) for award.

Section 7: Attachments

Attachment A: Project Location Map

Attachment B: Technical Proposal Score Sheet

Attachment A Project Location Map to RFP 550-24

Attachment B Proposal Score Sheet to RFP 550-25

Phase I: Mandatory Vendor Qualification

The proposal must meet all the following Phase I proposal acceptance criteria to be considered for further evaluation. Any proposal receiving a "no" response to any of the following qualifying criteria shall be disqualified from consideration.

ITEM # PROPOSAL ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA RFP Section Reference YES NO

1 Was the vendor's proposal received by the deadline as specified in the RFP? 3

2 Does the vendor have a minimum of five (5) years’ experience in substantially similar commercial food service and/or café operations? 2.1

Phase II: Criteria for Scoring the Proposal

Qualifying proposals will be collectively scored by a Proposal Review Team (PRT) appointed by the State. For each of the evaluation criteria given in the following score sheet, reviewers will collectively judge whether the proposal exceeds, meets, partially meets, or does not meet the requirements expressed in the RFP, and assign the appropriate point value.

0 6 8 10 Does Not Meet Requirement

Partially Meets Requirement

Meets Requirement

Exceeds Requirement

Proposal Scoring Definitions:

“Does Not Meet Requirement”

A particular RFP requirement was not addressed in the vendor’s proposal, Score: 0

“Partially Meets Requirement”

Vendor proposal demonstrates some attempt at meeting a particular RFP requirement, but that attempt falls below acceptable level, Score: 5

“Meets Requirement”

Vendor proposal fulfills a particular RFP requirement in all material respects, potentially with only minor, non-substantial deviation, Score: 8

“Exceeds Requirement”

Vendor proposal fulfills a particular RFP requirement in all material respects, and offers some additional level of quality greater than expectations, Score: 10

A proposal’s total PHASE II score will be the sum of the point value for all the evaluation criteria. The review team will collectively score each individual qualifying proposal. Proposals which do not meet or exceed a total score of at least 250 points (a score which represents that the selected vendor has the capability to successfully perform the project/program services) out of a maximum of 340 points, will be disqualified from further consideration. Only those vendors whose Proposals meet or exceed the minimum required proposal points will advance to PHASE III of the proposal score sheet.

ITEM # EVALUATION CRITERIA RFP SEC.

REF. Weighting

Does Not Meet

Partially Meets

Meets

Exceeds

EXPERIENCE & VENDOR QUALIFICATIONS

ORGANIZATIONAL EXPERIENCE & CAPABILITIES

1 The vendor has provided a cover letter summarizing their commitment to the services requested within this RFP. 2.2 3

2 The vendor has provided a description of the organization size, structure, and capability of meeting project qualifications. 2.3 3

The vendor has provided documentation describing their experience with previous and present contracts for whom they have provided substantially similar services.

2.3 4

The vendor has provided letters of reference from at least three

(3) previous or current clients for whom they have provided substantially similar services.

2.3 4

5 The vendor had provided documentation detailing the personnel responsible for preparing the proposal. 2.3 2

SCOPE OF SERVICES

In this section, the vendor must provide the items below in enough detail for the evaluation team to comprehend the methodology that has been or will be utilized in carrying out the proposed solution.

6 The vendor has provided an overall conceptual vision, in sufficient detail, of the proposed food service operation. 2.4 3

7 The vendor has provided sample menu(s) detailing their proposed offerings with suggested prices. 2.5 3

8 The vendor has provided narrative outlining their proposed marketing plan for the food service operation. 2.6 2

9 The vendor has provided documentation outlining their proposed start-up and implementation plan. 2.7 3

The vendor has provided a comprehensive staffing plan, identifying key staff and plans/procedures to assure high quality customer service.

2.8 3

11 The vendor has provided a proposed compensation model. 2.9 2

The vendor has provided sufficient amplification and justification for requested exceptions/deviations from the terms and conditions of this request.

2.11 2

Column Subtotal of "Partially Meets" points

Column Subtotal of "Meets" points

Column Subtotal of "Exceeds" points

GRAND TOTAL SCORE:

Phase III: Oral Interviews

Qualifying proposals that have met the minimum score requirements of Phase II may be invited to oral interviews where their proposal may be discussed in detail with the PRT.

The vendor offering the proposal most advantageous to the State, as determined by the processes and requirements established in this RFP, will be recommend to the Director of ODOT (or the Director's designee) for award.