Request for Qualification for Capital Improvement Project; Food Service for the Raleigh Convention Center Expansion

The City of Raleigh is seeking one or more qualified firm(s) with which to contract for the following services:

Professional foodservice design and consulting services for the Raleigh Convention Center Expansion. The City seeks a qualified foodservice consultant to program, design, specify, and prepare bid documents for all commercial foodservice equipment and food/beverage service areas within the new facility, and to provide coordination and construction-phase services through equipment installation, start-up, and commissioning.

Raleigh Convention Center Expansion is an expansion project for the existing Raleigh Convention Center located at 500 S Salisbury St, Raleigh. The new facility will be built at the current Red Hat Amphitheater location and will have three floors at approximately 322,646 gross sf, consisting of multiple meeting rooms, flex halls, admin and other spaces.

The awarded firm (the "Consultant") shall provide comprehensive professional foodservice design, equipment specification, and coordination services for the Raleigh Convention Center Expansion, a new three-floor facility of approximately 322,646 gross square feet to be constructed at the current Red Hat Amphitheater site at 500 S. Salisbury Street. The Consultant shall serve as the City’s foodservice design professional, working in coordination with the City, the design team of record, the construction manager, and the operator/caterer to deliver fully designed, code-compliant, and operationally efficient foodservice facilities. Services shall encompass all design phases from programming through post-occupancy, as further described below.

The Consultant shall furnish all professional services, labor, and deliverables necessary to program, design, engineer, specify, and coordinate the procurement and installation of all commercial foodservice equipment and service areas for the facility. [...]

Design and Consulting Tasks

• Programming & Needs Assessment.
• Schematic Design.
• Design Development.
• Construction Documents.
• Bidding / RFQ Support.

Construction-Phase Services

• Submittal Review.
• RFIs & Substitutions.
• Site Observation.
• Start-up & Commissioning.

Deliverables

• Foodservice programming report and equipment needs assessment.
• Schematic, design-development, and construction-document equipment drawings (floor plans, elevations, utility rough-in plans, special-condition and fabrication details).
• Complete foodservice equipment schedule and written specifications.
• MEP rough-in requirement matrices for coordination with the design team.
• Bid/procurement documents, bid evaluation, and recommendation of award.
• Submittal review logs, RFI responses, site-observation reports, and final punch list.
• Opinions of probable equipment cost at each design milestone.
• As-designed record documents, warranties compilation, and Owner staff-training coordination at closeout.

Submittals must be enclosed in a sealed envelope or package and clearly marked with the name of the submitting company, the RFQ number and the RFQ Title, and must include:

• one (1) signed hard-copy original submittal package;
• one (1) electronic version of the signed submittal;
• and Two (2) hard-copies of the signed submittal.

The electronic version of the Proposal must be submitted as a viewable and printable Adobe Portable Document File (PDF) on a flash drive. Both hard copy and electronic versions must be received by the City on or before **November 9, 2026, at 4:00 PM EST**.

This solicitation is being issued in accordance with NC G.S. Chapter 143 Article 3D (Procurement of Architectural, Engineering, and Surveying Services), otherwise known as the Mini-Brooks Act, and therefore price cannot and will not be a determining factor in the selection of the successful service provider. One copy of the Hourly Rate Schedule (see Appendix I) for all proposed project personnel should be enclosed in a separate, sealed envelope.

This is not a bid. There will not be a public opening. Each criterion (Corporate Background and Experience, Firm Financial Stability, Project Understanding, Project Approach, Team Firm, Experience, and Qualifications) has a weight of 20 and is scored 0-3.

The contract issued by the City to the selected firm will state and define a completion date by which the services are to be finished and completed.