HB0779eng 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB0779 Engrossed LRB103 04371 RPS 49377 b

AN ACT concerning State government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Reimagining Hotel Florence Act.

Section 5. Legislative intent. Originally built in 1881, the Hotel Florence is located within the Pullman Historic District and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 30, 1970. To save it from demolition the Historic Pullman Foundation purchased the hotel in 1975 and maintained ownership until 1991 when the State of Illinois took title of the building. The Hotel Florence is continually closed for renovations and is a semi-closed public space.

The hotel sits next to the Pullman National Historic Landmark District, which was designated as a National Monument in 2015 and recently redesignated as Illinois's first National Park on December 29, 2022 and is operated by the U.S. National Park Service. This redesignation allows for the National Park Service to enter into cooperative agreements with outside parties for interpretive and educational programs at nonfederal historic properties within the boundaries of the park and to provide assistance for the preservation of nonfederal land within the boundaries of the historical park and at sites in close proximity to it, which may include the Hotel Florence.

The General Assembly has allocated $21,000,000 in capital infrastructure funds to aid in the redevelopment of the Hotel Florence.

The General Assembly finds that allowing for the Department of Natural Resources to enter into a public-private partnership that will allow the Hotel Florence to become a fully reactivated space in a timely manner that is in the public benefit of the State and the local Pullman community.

Section 10. Definitions. In this Act:

"Agreement" means a public-private agreement.

"Contractor" means a person that has been selected to enter or has entered into a public-private agreement with the Department on behalf of the State for the development, financing, construction, management, or operation of the Hotel Florence pursuant to this Act.

"Department" means the Department of Natural Resources.

"Hotel Florence" means real property in City of Chicago located within the Pullman Historic District that is owned by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and was acquired in 1991, at the address of 11111 S. Forrestville Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, as well as the adjacent Hotel Florence Annex building located at 537 East 111th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60628 and any associated grounds connected to either property.

"Maintain" or "maintenance" includes ordinary maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, capital maintenance, maintenance replacement, and any other categories of maintenance that may be designated by the Department.

"Offeror" means a person that responds to a request for proposals under this Act.

"Operate" or "operation" means to do one or more of the following: maintain, improve, equip, modify, or otherwise operate.

"Person" means any individual, firm, association, joint venture, partnership, estate, trust, syndicate, fiduciary, corporation, or any other legal entity, group, or combination thereof.

"Public-private agreement" means an agreement or contract between the Department on behalf of the State and all schedules, exhibits, and attachments thereto, entered into pursuant to a competitive request for proposals process governed by this Act, for the development, financing, construction, management, or operation of the Hotel Florence under this Act.

"Revenues" means all revenues, including, but not limited to, income, user fees, earnings, interest, lease payments, allocations, moneys from the federal government, the State, and units of local government, including, but not limited to, federal, State, and local appropriations, grants, loans, lines of credit, and credit guarantees; bond proceeds; equity investments; service payments; or other receipts arising out of or in connection with the financing, development, construction, management, or operation of the Hotel Florence.

"State" means the State of Illinois.

Section 15. Authority to enter public-private agreement.

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the Department on behalf of the State may, pursuant to a competitive request for proposals process governed by the Illinois Procurement Code, rules adopted under that Code, and this Act, enter into a public-private agreement to develop, finance, construct, lease, manage, or operate the Hotel Florence on behalf of the State, pursuant to which the contractors may receive certain revenues, including management or user fees in consideration of the payment of moneys to the State for that right.

(b) The term of a public-private agreement shall be no less than 25 years and no more than 75 years.

(c) The term of a public-private agreement may be extended, but only if the extension is specifically authorized by the General Assembly by law.

Section 20. Procurement; prequalification. The Department may establish a process for prequalification of offerors. If the Department does create such a process, it shall:

(1) provide a public notice of the prequalification at least 30 days prior to the date on which applications are due;

(2) set forth requirements and evaluation criteria in order to become prequalified;

(3) determine which offerors that have submitted prequalification applications, if any, meet the requirements and evaluation criteria; and

(4) allow only those offerors that have been prequalified to respond to the request for proposals.

Section 25. Request for proposals process to enter into public-private agreement.

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the Department on behalf of the State shall select a contractor through a competitive request for proposals process governed by the Illinois Procurement Code and rules adopted under that Code and this Act.

(b) The competitive request for proposals process shall, at a minimum, solicit statements of qualification and proposals from offerors.

(c) The competitive request for proposals process shall, at a minimum, take into account the following criteria:

(1) the offeror's plans for the Hotel Florence project;

(2) the offeror's current and past business practices;

(3) the offeror's poor or inadequate past performance in developing, financing, constructing, managing, or operating historic landmark properties or other public assets;

(4) the offeror's ability to meet and past performance in meeting or exhausting good faith efforts to meet the utilization goals for business enterprises established in the Business Enterprise for Minorities, Women, and Persons with Disabilities Act;

(5) the offeror's ability to comply with and past performance in complying with Section 2-105 of the Illinois Human Rights Act; and

(6) the offeror's plans to comply with the Business Enterprise for Minorities, Women, and Persons with Disabilities Act and Section 2-105 of the Illinois Human Rights Act.

(d) The Department shall not include terms in the request for proposals that provide an advantage, whether directly or indirectly, to any contractor presently providing goods, services, or equipment to the Department.

(e) The Department shall select one or more offerors as finalists.

(f) After the procedures required in this Section have been completed, the Department shall make a determination as to whether the offeror should be designated as the contractor for the Hotel Florence project and shall submit the decision to the Governor and to the Governor's Office of Management and Budget. After review of the Department's determination, the Governor may accept or reject the determination. If the Governor accepts the determination of the Department, the Governor shall designate the offeror for the Hotel Florence project.

Section 30. Provisions of the public-private agreement.

(a) The public-private agreement shall include all of the following:

(1) the term of the public-private agreement that is consistent with Section 40;

(2) the powers, duties, responsibilities, obligations, and functions of the Department and the contractor;

(3) compensation or payments to the Department, if applicable;

(4) compensation or payments to the contractor, if applicable;

(5) a provision specifying that the Department:

(A) has ready access to information regarding the contractor's powers, duties, responsibilities, obligations, and functions under the public-private agreement;

(B) has the right to demand and receive information from the contractor concerning any aspect of the contractor's powers, duties, responsibilities, obligations, and functions under the public-private agreement; and

(C) has the authority to direct or countermand decisions by the contractor at any time;

(6) a provision imposing an affirmative duty on the contractor to provide the Department with any information the contractor reasonably believes the Department would want to know or would need to know to enable the Department to exercise its powers, carry out its duties, responsibilities, and obligations, and perform its functions under this Act or the public-private agreement or as otherwise required by law;

(7) the authority of the Department to enter into contracts with third parties pursuant to Section 40;

(8) the authority of the Department to request that the contractor reimburse the Department for third party consultants related to the monitoring the project;

(9) a provision governing the contractor's authority to negotiate and execute subcontracts with third parties;

(10) the authority of the contractor to impose user fees and the amounts of those fees;

(11) a provision governing the deposit and allocation of revenues including user fees;

(12) a provision governing rights to real and personal property of the State, the Department, the contractor, and other third parties;

(13) grounds for termination of the agreement by the Department or the contractor and a restatement of the Department's rights under this Act;

(14) a requirement that the contractor enter into a project labor agreement;

(15) a provision stating that construction contractors shall comply with the requirements of Section 30-22 of the Illinois Procurement Code;

(16) rights and remedies of the Department if the contractor defaults or otherwise fails to comply with the terms of the agreement;

(17) procedures for amendment to the agreement; and

(18) all other terms, conditions, and provisions acceptable to the Department that the Department deems necessary and proper and in the public interest.

Section 35. Time limitations. The Department shall issue a request for proposals within 6 months after the effective date of this Act. The Department shall have 6 months from the date of issuance of the request for proposals to select a contractor.

Section 40. Term of agreement; reversion of property to the Department.

(a) The Department may terminate the contractor's authority and duties under the public-private agreement on the date set forth in the public-private agreement.

(b) Upon termination of the public-private agreement, the authority and duties of the contractor under this Act cease, except for those duties and obligations that extend beyond the termination, as set forth in the public-private agreement, and all interests in the Hotel Florence shall revert to the Department.

Section 45. Prohibited local action; home rule. A unit of local government, including a home rule unit, may not take any action that would have the effect of impairing the public-private agreement under this Act. This Section is a denial and limitation of home rule powers and functions under subsection (h) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution.

Section 50. Powers liberally construed. The powers conferred by this Act shall be liberally construed in order to accomplish their purposes and shall be in addition and supplemental to the powers conferred by any other law. If any other law or rule is inconsistent with this Act, this Act is controlling as to any public-private agreement entered into under this Act.

Section 55. Full and complete authority. This Act contains full and complete authority for agreements and leases with private entities to carry out the activities described in this Act. Except as otherwise required by law, no procedure, proceedings, publications, notices, consents, approvals, orders, or acts by the Department or any other State or local agency or official are required to enter into an agreement or lease.

Section 97. Severability. The provisions of this Act are severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.