Site Visit
South Rim
Accommodations, Facilities, and Services
Concession Contract
CC-GRCA001-01

On May 15-16, 2001, the National Park Service conducted a site visit of properties to be assigned to the Concessioner under Contract CC-GRCA001-01, for provision of Accommodations, Facilities and Services on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. The release of the prospectus for this Contract was announced on April 5, 2001.

Minutes of the site visit have been sent to participants, and are also available towards the bottom of this web page.

Participants received information that was not previously published in the prospectus or otherwise published. That information is as follows:

• The Business Opportunity for Draft Contract CC-GRCA001-01 says that its transportation and kennel services will end when the transit contract is implemented. However, that will depend on whether the transit contract is a concession contract or is procured through some other method. If the NPS procures a transit system through a method other than a concession, then the bus tour and kennel services may remain with contract CC-GRCA001-01.
• Draft Contract CC-GRCA001-01 lists the construction of a new Desert View Trading Post as one of its proposed building projects. During review of the whole Desert View renovation project, it was proposed that the existing general store, currently operated by another concessioner, might be replaced and the existing building converted into the new Desert View Trading Post. This would mean that rather than construction of a new building, an existing building would be converted for this use.
• All fuel tanks in the current NPS maintenance facility are above ground, with the exception of a single one-thousand-gallon waste-oil tank. All tanks meet current standards.
• The current NPS maintenance building is being replaced because it is too small for NPS needs, not because of other deficits. The engineering building, to be turned over to the new concessioner, contains of seven office spaces and a conference room. The warehouse building, to be turned over to the new concessioner, contains modular office spaces, an office supply depot, and a main warehouse. The north half of the building is heated and insulated; the warehouse side is not. There is a truck dock on one side, ground level access on the other side.
• The concessioner's general offices are to be renovated as part of the Building and Improvement program called for in the prospectus. The public garage, currently occupying part of that same building, will be closed and converted into office space. The concessioner's fleet maintenance operations will be moved to the current NPS maintenance building, which will be transferred to the concessioner.

Site visit participants asked several questions:

Q: How does the General Management Plan affect the prospectus?

A: The General Management Plan gives the vision that the park service has for the park. Implementation of the plan is dependent on factors such as the financial feasibility of its actions, funding and site-specific compliance. So the Prospectus may not implement all of the changes called for by the General Management Plan.

Q: Regarding the secondary factor which considers converting housing to hostels and rebuilding employee housing elsewhere, have feasibility studies been done on that by the NPS, or is that up to the bidder to determine?

A: The NPS has not done such a study. The bidder must make its own determination.

Q: Regarding the total value of the leasehold improvements-will that value be divided out so that we know what the value of each building is? Will the price tag for any individual buildings be done prior to August 2nd? Would the value of the withdrawn buildings be a post contract award?

A: Price tags on individual buildings will not be determined prior to August 2nd, and any value for the withdrawn buildings would be given after the award of the contract. Value determinations will have to be done for each building that the NPS withdraws from the concessioner. It was not part of the arbitration process which determined the total possessory interest value. The arbitrated possessory interest figure is not a building by building figure; it is an overall value for the business.

Minutes from Site Visit
Prospectus GRCA001-01
May 15-16, 2001

Attendees:

Amfac Bob Baker Bill Johnston Jon Streit Aramark Joe Rentfro Bob Seney Dave Waddell Delaware North Gary Fraker Dave Levea Derek Zwickey

Teltara/Holmes and Narver Greg Bosserman Howard Hill Hank Hutson Grand Canyon National Park Raymond Gunn, Chief, Concessions Program Management Ginger Bice, Concessions Specialist Laura Shearin, Concessions Contracting Analyst David Rhinehart, Concessions Assistant Lita Ebersole, Concessions Specialist Maureen Oltrogge, Public Affairs Officer Brad Traver, Manager, GMP Implementation Team John Beshears, Acting Chief, Maintenance

Introduction to the Site Visit: Raymond Gunn

Raymond greeted the guests, and described ground rules. No new information on the Prospectus can be given just to participants at this meeting; it must be released publicly.

Review of the General Management Plan and its effect on the Prospectus: Brad Traver.

Brad gave an overview of the General Management Plan (GMP) and its effect on the development of the South Rim Prospectus. Notes from that overview follow.

The GMP proposes solutions to four major issues Grand Canyon National Park is facing: transportation, education, land use conflicts, and tired facilities.

1. The Transportation Issue.

   Transportation is the backbone of the plan. Grand Canyon proposes to change its transportation system from a car-based system to a mass transit and trail system. Visitors will get out of their cars in Tusayan, get onto the transit system and come into the park.

   Last fall the NPS was prepared to issue a concessions prospectus for a light rail service to be financed by a private concessioner, as part of a twenty-year concessions contract.

   Congress asked the park to refrain from issuance, and asked for a report on some alternatives to the light rail system, to be submitted on the first of July. The park will not have a clear direction on the future of the Grand Canyon Transit System until some months from now.

   Given the number of uncertainties while the NPS reviews the transportation issue, there are still some general things to say about this transportation system, and how it will work.

   At the Tusayan transit station, where people will leave their cars and get on the transit system, the original proposal required a kennel, a convenience/retail facility, a merchandise pickup for sales outlets in the park, security and EMT services.

   The requirement for security and EMT services is not likely to change even if the contracting method changes. However, if the transit system is not a concession contract, the NPS may federally fund the capital, and may make some changes in the services, or the way in which those services are acquired.

   This South Rim Hospitality Prospectus says that its bus tour services will sunset when the transportation contract is implemented, but that also depends on whether the transit contract is a concession or procured some other way.

   If a transit concessioner is established, all the transportation services will be combined into that one transit contract, and the service will sunset as described in the Prospectus. However, if the NPS procures a transit system through a method other than a concession contract, then the tour service operated by the concessioner will probably not sunset.

   Once in the park on the transit system, the first place visitors will stop is at Canyon View Information Plaza, near Mather Point.

   Canyon View Information Plaza provides orientation, which is one-half of what a traditional visitor center offers. Traditional visitor centers also offer some kind of education about the park-movies or exhibits. Because of the numbers of visitors, the park has decided to split the two functions apart, and provide orientation here.

   From Canyon View Information Plaza, visitors may go either east on or west on shuttle buses, to Desert View Drive or out to the village or Hermit's Rest.

   Multi-use trails will also radiate from the Canyon View Information Plaza. The rim trail is currently being extended to Mather Point, and later this summer it will extend further to the first overlook on East Rim Drive. After these are completed, another trail will connect Canyon View with the Village, and later, a third phase will connect Canyon View to Tusayan. These trails are all in the planning and design stages.

   The park may establish a bike rental concession, separate from the hospitality contract, when the trails are in place.

   Canyon View Information Plaza is the first transit station in the park. The second transit station in the park will likely be in the middle of the historic village.

   If the light rail proposal is used, the light rail will go around and come into the historic village area along the existing rail line, to a station on the north side of the Powerhouse building. If a bus system is used, the bus station may end up closer to Amfac's current personnel offices, on the other end of the Heritage Education Campus.

   Several local bus routes will continue to operate, serving Yavapai Lodge, trailer village, the campground, and a variety of sites in the Village, known as the Village Loop.

2. Establishing Education Facilities.

   Recall the concept that Grand Canyon is splitting the orientation and education functions of the traditional Visitor Center. The orientation function will be provided at Canyon View, and the education part will be provided at the Heritage Education Campus.

   The Heritage Education Campus will incorporate the laundry building, the powerhouse, the original mule barn, the original livery, and the maintenance shop in the historic village area. These buildings will be converted from their current uses to visitor education buildings, and used for walk-in education for visitors.

   This year, the NPS will refine its vision of the Heritage Education Campus, and then begin working on it in earnest. Some of the Heritage Education Campus buildings will become vacant within the next 12 to 18 months and the NPS will have an opportunity to start some rehabilitation, focusing on the powerhouse first.

   The Heritage Education Campus will become the NPS focus for the village. It will be a pedestrian-only area, connected to the rim by a new pedestrian bridge, probably off the east side of the power house, across the tracks to the visitor area on the rim.

3. Resolving Land Use Conflicts.

   The Heritage Education Campus will be intensively used by visitors when it is established. This historic warehouse district is already used by a lot of visitors even though it's in the middle of Amfac's operations.

   An example of a land use conflict is Victor Hall and Victor Annex, two dormitories located in this area. The NPS would like to get some employee housing built to replace these, and convert them to guest lodging. This is a secondary factor in the Prospectus.

   Another land use conflict is Colter Hall, an employee dormitory right next to the El Tovar and Kachina Lodge. Another optional secondary factor in the Prospectus is to construct employee housing to replace the need for employee housing at Colter Hall, and convert this structure to guest lodging. The NPS would like to do that eventually, whether it happens as an option that is picked up in the Prospectus or not.

   The third example is at Brandt and Rouzer Halls. These two dormitories are in the visitor use area between Yavapai Lodge and Trailer Village. This is also part of the secondary factor in the Prospectus: new employee housing construction and the conversion of Brandt and Rouzer Halls to guest lodging.

   The last of the visitor use conflict areas is not addressed in the Prospectus; it is the area between the El Tovar and Bright Angel. The General Management Plan proposes to remove the Thunderbird and Kachina Lodges, and to replace them with rooms at Yavapai West, so that there's no net loss of rooms. This area on the rim would be made available for more organized outdoor space for visitors. This is not addressed in the Prospectus, not required in the new Contract, and if we were to get to that, it would be several years down the road.

4. Old and tired facilities.

   There are a few old and tired facilities, in the park service and in the concession operation, at Grand Canyon National Park. The park believes some of the rooms at Maswik South are not in very good condition, and would like to be able to replace those rooms eventually, although that is not addressed in this Prospectus.

   The Prospectus does call for removal of Shirley Hall, which is the personnel and housing office for the current concessioner.

   The concessioner's general offices need some renovation work. The plan is to renovate that entire building to improve the office space on the west side, and also to convert the public garage into office space.

   At Desert View, we propose to construct a new general store building next to the existing gas station. The existing general store building would then be rehabilitated for use as a retail/food service facility replacing the existing Trading Post.

   And lastly, we would like to improve and increase employee housing.

   Brad generally described the outlines of the village historic district using the map of the area, and noted that there are also historic districts at Desert View and at Phantom Ranch.

   Some buildings from the fifties and sixties, for example the recently closed NPS visitor center, are now being considered for historic designation.

   Two concessioner building projects are about to start. A new concessioner mule facility will be constructed later this year. A concessioner warehouse to be built later this year will replace some of the functions in the historic laundry building and historic powerhouse. Through consolidation of facilities, the historic powerhouse will become available for NPS to begin renovations.

   Longer term, the NPS is building a new maintenance facility for itself. The NPS maintenance facility will move into this new facility in 18-24 months, and the concessioner's maintenance, procurement, purchasing etc. will be going to the NPS's former maintenance facility.

Status of Litigation: Raymond Gunn

Raymond described briefly the current status of litigation regarding concessions regulations and standard contract language.

Tour Destinations and High points

The group spent the afternoon and next morning visiting various locations in the South Rim Village area. Highlights and notes from each location are listed. Generally, the group walked through or was driven by buildings in each of the areas listed in the Village land assignments.

• Historic Warehouse Area:

  Many of the operations currently housed in this historic maintenance district will move after the completion of the NPS maintenance facility, estimated at 18-24 months from now. Others will move earlier, after completion of the new mule facility and the warehouse project to be started later this year.

  There is still one active rail line in this historic complex. One of the park's 22 concessions contracts is for daily tour train service between Williams and the South Rim.

  The NPS is working on moving the power substation out of the historic district.

• Victor Hall: This is one of the buildings proposed in the secondary factors for conversion into hostel-type lodging, if the employees housed here are moved to other housing to be built by the concessioner. This is currently an all-male dorm.

  The concessioner does the grounds maintenance for the dorms, as described in its responsibilities for its land assignments in the Prospectus.

• Victor Annex: also a secondary factor for potential conversion to hostel-type lodging.
  
  
• Shirley Hall is currently the concessioner's employee intake and housing office. After the renovation of the general offices and the public garage is complete, this building will be removed. Both the renovations and the removal are in the Prospectus Building and Improvement program.
  
  
• NPS Maintenance Complex:

  The NPS will continue to operate the NPS museum collection storage building and have its collections in there.

  The new Concessioner warehouse facility will be on the same end of the NPS maintenance building as the bus wash. Concession items and operations currently housed in the historic powerhouse will be moved to this new facility, to be built later this year.

  All of the fuel tanks in this facility are above ground, with the exception of a single one thousand gallon waste-oil tank. They meet the requirements of the 1998 rules.

  The paint shed, a pre-engineered building, goes over to the concessioner.

  The NPS maintenance building was built in 1964. The NPS is moving out of it because it is too small for the NPS maintenance operation, not because it is a bad facility.

  The fueling station is currently shared, a joint facility between the concessioner and the park.

  The bus wash recycles the same water for reuse in the bus wash.

• Engineering building. This was constructed by NPS employees. There are seven office spaces and a conference room.
  
  
• Warehouse. The warehouse contains modular office spaces, an office supply depot, and then the main warehouse. The north half of the building is heated and insulated, the warehouse side is not. It has a truck dock on one side, ground level access on the other side. There's a dock on the end that's not set up for trucks but can be used by step vans.
  
  
• Amfac managers' housing: Some employee houses have woodstoves; some have fireplaces. NPS guidelines describe what is required in the yards, but the inside policy is set by the concessioner.
  
  
• Rim Properties: Although the General Management Plan calls for the removal of the Thunderbird and Kachina, and restoration of the area for more programs and common space, it is not in this Prospectus. If it were to happen during the course of this contract, it would have to come through some amicable arrangement between the NPS and the concessioner. The rooms would be replaced over at the Yavapai area.
  
  
• Arizona Room: dinner and lunch for the public in the new Prospectus.
  
  
• The Bright Angel, the Arizona Room and the Employee cafe share one kitchen.
  
  
• Bright Angel Lodge: This is one of the areas where renovation is called for in the Prospectus building and improvement program.
  
  
• Bucky and Powell Buildings: some of the smaller rooms in the park, all very similar. Some have full baths, some have half baths, some just have a sink. There are no televisions in these rooms and they are historic. These were built in the thirties.

  Cabins are all part of Bright Angel. They're like four-plexes, some have fireplaces, private baths. The paint colors were all designed by Mary Colter.

• New Mule Barn Location
  
  
• General Offices: The public garage will close at the beginning of the contract, but the fleet maintenance operation will continue for a period of time. Fleet operations will move into the NPS maintenance building that will be coming to the concessioner. This building will be renovated into offices and Shirley Hall will be demolished.
  
  
• Historic Superintendent's House This building is owned by the NPS. The building and improvement program calls for a renovation of this building. The contract assigns this building to the concessioner and the concessioner does maintain it. This was originally the NPS contact station, then the superintendent's house until the mid-'80s, then turned over for concessioner use.
  
  
• Coconino Apartments has a combination of efficiencies and one bedrooms.
  
  
• Pinyon Park: privately owned trailers on Amfac-managed sites. If someone proposed to convert some of the rim dorms into lodging, this is the area proposed for the replacement employee housing.
  
  
• Recreation Center: The recreation center has been operated under a special use permit, but will become part of the concession contract as part of this Prospectus.
  
  
• Trailer Village: This was originally developed to be all RV camping, but the park's need for employee housing was so great that half was used for that purpose. Both sides are managed by the concessioner. The employee trailers are mostly privately owned, some are company owned by companies other than Amfac.
  
  
• Yavapai Rooms
  
  
• Brandt and Rouzer Dorms: mixed boys and girls' dorms. Brandt is smoke free/party free. There is a long waiting list for this dorm. These dorms are also part of that secondary factor for consideration: building more employee housing, and converting these dorms to hostel-type lodging.
  
  
• Maswik Quads: the bathrooms are private to each room. They are not shared.

  The General Management Plan proposes the removal of the 700 cabins, but this project is not included in the Prospectus.

• Maswik South
  
  
• Maswik North: Lampshades are Cowboy by Mario Industries
  
  
• Maswik Cafeteria and Bar
  
  
• Bus tour of housing
  
  

Closeout: Raymond Gunn

Raymond discussed briefly the status of other prospectuses. Antelope Point has been awarded; June 2nd is the closing date for Hamilton Stores.

Q: Regarding the secondary factor which considers converting housing to hostels and rebuilding employee housing elsewhere, have feasibility studies been done on that by the NPS, or is that up to the bidder to determine?

A: The NPS has not done such a study. The bidder must make its own determination.

Q: Regarding the total value of the leasehold improvements-will that value be divided out so that we know what the value of each building is? Will the price tag for any individual buildings be done prior to August 2nd? Would the value of the withdrawn buildings be a post contract award?

A: Price tags on individual buildings will not be determined prior to August 2nd, and any value for the withdrawn buildings would be given after the award of the contract. Value determinations will have to be done for each building that the NPS withdraws from the concessioner. It was not part of the arbitration process that determined the overall possessory interest value. The arbitrated possessory interest figure is not a building by building figure; it's an overall value for the business.

The first two buildings to be withdrawn will be the service station and the livery barn.

Q: How does the General Management Plan affect the Prospectus?

A: The General Management Plan gives the vision that the park service has for the park. Implementation of the plan is dependent on things like money, the actual ability to get through environmental compliance. So the Prospectus ought not conflict with existing park plans, but it may not fulfill all of them.

The site visit was concluded at about 12:30 p.m. on May 16, 2001.

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