Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that the Forthriver Innovation Centre was a 55,000 square feet capital build project, with 35,000 square feet nett lettable space located off the Springfield Road.  The capital build cost of the Innovation Centre was estimated at £9.1 million, with up to 75% of eligible costs to be provided by Invest NI and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programme funding.  A letter of offer from Invest NI for its contribution was expected imminently.

            The quantifiable outputs for the project (in line with the indicative funding letter of offer) included the support of approximately 221 jobs in the ongoing operation of the Centre; the delivery of a suite of collaborative, specific, exemplar business support within the Centre; and five collaborative networks to be supported from 2016 onwards.  The Director of Development reported that, in parallel with the capital programme and planning application, officers were preparing documents to commence a competitive dialogue procurement process for the centre operator.  The operator’s roles would include the following:

·        to proactively manage the day-to-day and strategic activities of the centre;

·        to support the creation of employment opportunities and act as a catalyst for the further economic development and regeneration of the area;

·        to support more business starts to help existing businesses grow and become more productive;

·        to achieve the maximum occupancy levels;

·        to maintain an attractive and innovative environment to encourage businesses to establish at the Centre;

·        to maximise potential tenancy income, while fixing rates which were attractive to the target market; and

·        to provide appropriate levels of assurances to the Council regarding the financial performance of the Centre, in line with Council requirements and those set out in the letter of offer.

            It was proposed that the tendering exercise for the operator contract would be carried out using the competitive dialogue method of procurement.  That would allow the Council to engage with potential operators to maximise the benefits that could be derived from the contract.  The competitive dialogue process would inform a contract for services, through which a list of services would be established and the operator would provide costs for the delivery of each.  The process would allow, in particular, a discussion with potential operators regarding the potential regeneration impact of their service delivery, taking account of the need to support economic and social regeneration in the area.  The process was likely to take from nine till twelve months to complete, depending on the number of interested operators.

            He pointed out that no expenditure would be incurred on either the operator contract or the build contract until the letter of offer was in place from Invest NI.

            Accordingly, the Committee agreed to:

·        approve the procurement of the operator contract for the Innovation Centre using the competitive dialogue process, subject to the receipt of the letter of offer from Invest NI; and

·        to grant delegated authority to the Director of Development to approve the most economically advantageous tender for the contract, subject to a form of contract being drawn up by Legal Services.