New London poised to grade companies seeking to run incoming recreation center

New London ― The companies vying to manage the city's incoming $40 million community and recreation center include national firms with backgrounds in running golf courses, college fitness facilities, sports venues and water parks.The city on Oct. 18 received four bids from an August request for proposal seeking operators for its 57,000-square-foot center being built on the Fort Trumbull peninsula.The bidders include:Felix Reyes, the city's director of planning and economic development, said a selection committee comprised of himself, Mayor Michael Passero, City Council President Efrain Dominguez Jr., Finance Director David McBride, Recreation Director Joshua Posey, Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut President and CEO Tony Sheridan and a representative of the Women's Business Development Council, will begin scrutinizing the individual bids and assigning grades."Each committee member will decide their grade independently and they will all be sent to our procurement office by Nov. 1," Reyes said. "Then, we'll decide how many of the bidders will be interviewed and make a decision on our top two recommendations."Posey said he's "super excited" to begin poring over the bidders' backgrounds, noting some submitted entire handbooks for committee perusal."I want to know about their backgrounds and how they've committed to the places they work," he said. "Whoever we hire is going to have to be creative and able to think outside the box. We want to draw people in regionally and not just from New London and they're going to have to figure out the best way to do that." Reyes said the city will next begin contract negotiations with the "winning" company, with the goal of presenting a proposed agreement to the City Council in December."We'll have our second choice kind of sitting idle and on stand by in case we can't reach an agreement with the first company," Reyes said. "I think the community will be impressed by the level of interest from the companies that put bids forward. They're all equally qualified and this will be a very competitive process."Whoever is chosen to run the New London center will have a heavy to-do list on their hands. In addition to hiring staff, ordering equipment and handling other pre-opening tasks, the company will play a role in fundraising, marketing and attracting paying members.Community members, city officials and work crews earlier this month celebrated the center's construction halfway-point with a topping-off ceremony.The facility, which will house a two-court gym, fitness center and eight-lane pool, along with office and community space, is scheduled to host an opening ceremony before July 4 and open to guests later that month, Reyes said."Ideally, you'd want to get a company in the facility nine to 12 months before it opens," Reyes said. "We're a little behind, but still hope to get someone in there six to eight months before we open." j.penney@theday.com