Food and Beverage Service Consultant for the Alliant Energy Center of Dane County

The purpose of this document is to provide interested parties with information necessary to prepare and submit a solicitation response for assisting Alliant Energy Center (AEC) management staff with evaluating current food and beverage service operations, drafting and issuing a RFP for food and beverage service and assisting with all phases of the RFP (creating the document, pre-release marketing the RFP, evaluation of responses and recommendation), term sheet negotiation with selected bidder and transition process to the successful vendor.

Additional information about the Alliant Energy Center can be found on the website at www.alliantenergycenter.com .

The County intends to use the results of this process to award a contract for a food and beverage consultant.

Project Details

• Reference ID: 2026-RFP-041-PR
• Department: Alliant Energy Center
• Department Head: Kevin Scheibler (Director)

Important Dates

• Questions Due: 2026-05-18T21:00:00.000Z
• Answers Posted By: 2026-05-20T21:00:00.000Z

Evaluation Criteria

• Introduction (5 pts) —
  1. Provide a one-page overview of the firm’s interest in the project and experience in leading similar projects.
  2. Special attention should be focused on providing examples of experience in work with a large campus that includes a variety of venues. 
  3. Experience in working with a campus that will be under significant transition during the term of the food and beverage contract should be highlighted.
• Organization Capabilities (15 pts) —
  1. Describe the firm’s experience and capabilities in providing similar services to those required. 
  2. Give a description of the organizational qualifications, which substantiate why you or your firm is suited to provide consulting services for food and beverage service operations, including drafting and issuing RFPs, negotiating contracts and assisting in the transition process.
  3. Experience in maximizing capital investment by respondants should be highlighted.
  4. Experience with public sector venues is particularly important and should be highlighted.
  5. Experience in working with a campus that will be under significant transition during the term of the food and beverage contract should be highlighted.
  6. Share applicable references.
• Staff Qualifications (20 pts) —
  1. Provide resumes describing the educational and work experiences for each of the key staff who would be assigned to the project. Dane County expects a single project manager to be assigned to the project for the duration. Please identify this project manager.
  2. Identify the key entities comprising your team, describing briefly their respective backgrounds and history.
  3. Identify the key project team members (names and titles) and affiliates who would become directly responsible for the various aspects of the contract. 
  4. Include a brief statement of the availability of key assigned personnel to the team.
• Project Approach (35 pts) —

  Provide narrative regarding the firm’s approach to facilitating the preparation of a RFP document for food and beverage service and transition to the new service for the AEC.  The proposer shall include in their approach to this project:

  1. 1. Provide narrative regarding the firm’s approach to reviewing current food and beverage operations.
     2. Provide details on how the firm will create the RFP for food and beverage services - understanding that during the agreement's term significant changes will likely occur on the campus that will impact the food and beverage operations.
     3. Provide details on how firm will ensure the County is receiving maximum amount of capital investment by the respondants.
     4. Provide details on the firms approach to pre-bid solicitation of prospective respondents.
     5. Provide details on the firms approch to working with oversight organizations (county officials, committes, boards, etc); key community stakeholders and client base to ensure that their views and concerns are addressed in the final RFP.
     6. Approach to development of work plans to be ensure that community norms are included in the RFP (equity, sustainability, etc).  
     7. Describe in detail, firms approach to evaluating the RFP responses.  Include how firm will compare responses with similar projects to ensure County is receiving most favorable response.
     8. Describe approach to negotiating term sheet with selected vendor.  Include examples of previous experience negotiating term sheets of similar nature.
• Timeline (5 pts) —

  Provide a proposed timeline for the project that ensures the new food and beverage contract is executed and the new vendor, if applicable, is operating on July 1, 2027.

• Cost (20 pts) —

  Breakdown your estimated costs by the following:

  1. 1. Pre-RFP release work - evaluating current operations, drafting RFP, pre-release marketing
     2. RFP analysis and recommendation
     3. Term Sheet negotiations
• Local Vendor Preference (5 pts)

Submission Requirements

• RFP DOCUMENT UPLOADS
• Single Proposal Submission (required) —

  Only 1 proposal is allowed to be submitted per Vendor Account. This means if you are submitting multiple proposals, you must follow the instructions set forth within the Section 2.2 RFP Guidelines and Overview - Multiple Proposals & Acceptance. 

  It is understood that if multiple proposals are uploaded using 1 vendor account, the entire submission will be subject to disqualification. 

• RFP Response Document - Upload your Proposal (required) —

  Please DO NOT include Cost information in this section.

• RFP Response - Supplemental Document Upload —

  Upload any additional or required information documents that supplements this solicitation.

• RFP Cost Proposal Document - Upload Cost Proposal (required) —

  Pricing shall be inclusive of all labor, delivery costs and other expenses necessary to provide product in accordance with the specifications and terms and conditions of this bid document and your proposal.

   

   

   

   

• RFP Cost Proposal - Supplemental Document Upload —

  If applicable, upload any documents providing further clarification of the submitted pricing from the Pricing Table. This is not required.

• W9 Upload (required) —

  Upload your company's W9 form.

  NOTE: The W9 is required to be signed within the past 12 months

• VENDOR INFORMATION
• Local Vendor Preference (required) —

  Select a Local Vendor Preference:

  Vendors located within Dane County automatically receive five points toward the evaluation score.

  Vendors located within the counties adjacent to Dane County (Columbia, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock, Sauk) automatically receive two points toward the evaluation score.

  Vendors located outside of Dane County and the 7 counties adjacent to Dane County would choose "No Preference".

  NOTE: A post office box address does not qualify as an established place of business.

• Fair Labor Practice Certification (required) —

  Has your company been found by the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") or the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission ("WERC") to have violated any statute or regulation regarding labor standards or relations in the seven years prior to the date this bid submission is signed?
  
  If yes is answered, a copy of any relevant information regarding such violation is required to be uploaded with your bid submission.

  Additional information about the NLRB and WERC can be found using the following links:
  www.nlrb.gov and http://werc.wi.gov.

• Cooperative Purchasing (required) —

  Reference Guidelines - Section F.

  Does your company agree to furnish the commodities or services of this bid to municipalities and state agencies?

• Designation of Confidential and Proprietary Information (required) —

  Please specify what information you wish to designate as confidential and proprietary. Please identify section/ pages/ topic /documents, etc.

  NOTE: Pricing sections cannot be designated as confidential and proprietary.

  If nothing will be designated, simply type "None" in the section below.

• Did you attend the mandatory vendor conference? (required)
• Did you attend the mandatory vendor conference? (required)
• RFP ADDENDA
• I understand that if any addendum is issued I will have to acknowledge the posted addendum. (required)
• If an addendum is posted after I have submitted my proposal response and the resulting addendum requires action to be taken either in the Specification Section or Pricing Section, I understand that: (required) —

  1. I will have to unsubmit my proposal response.

  2. I will have to acknowledge the posted addendum.

  3. I will have to take action in responding to the changes on either the Specification Section or Pricing Section.

  4. I will then have to resubmit my proposal response.

  Further instructions on addendum(a) postings can be found here.

• SIGNATURE DECLARATION
• RFP Solicitation Response Declaration (required) —

  In submitting and confirming this solicitation response, we certify that we have not, either directly or indirectly, entered into any agreement or participated in any collusion or otherwise taken any action in restraint of free competition; that no attempt has been made to induce any other person or firm to submit or not to submit a solicitation response; that this solicitation response has been independently arrived at without collusion with any other vendor competitor or potential competitor; that this solicitation response has not been knowingly disclosed prior to the opening of bids to any other vendor or competitor; that the above statement is accurate under penalty of perjury.

  Further, by submitting this solicitation response, firm agrees with all the terms, conditions, and specifications required by the County in this solicitation and declares that the corresponding solicitation response and pricing are in conformity therewith.

  I have read and understood the entire document.

  I declare under penalty of false swearing under the law of Wisconsin that the foregoing is true and correct.

• Signed on: (required) —

  Write in month, day, year and city/state in which the submission occurred.
  Example: June 27, 2025 in Madison, WI

• Electronically signed by: (required) —

  Provide First Name, Last Name and Title

• What is the MUNIS ORG & OBJECT code and available funds for this project? (required)
• Purchase Description
• How soon do you desire to OBTAIN the requested products/services? —

  Enter a specific date

  Figure 2 months minimum for RFB,

  Figure 6 month minimum for RFP from posting date

• Do you need this solicitation posted sooner than three weeks from now? —

  The typical lead time from intake to solicitation posting is 3-6 weeks depending on whether it's an RFP or RFB and complexity of the solicitation.

• Justification for Rush Request —

  Please provide desired posting date and justification for rush request

• What is the anticipated cost for this solicitation? (All Applicable Terms Combined)
• Via contract or a bid, is there an existing vendor currently providing these goods/services?
• Please state the current Contract # or Bid #:
• Is a vendor conference desired for this project? —

  NOTE: All vendor conferences are defaulted to begin at 10:00 am. Select dates that you and other staff are available at 10:00 am.

• (Yes - Mandatory on Site) List all dates that necessary staff are available to host the vendor conference:
• (Yes - Mandatory on Site) Provide address for vendor conference: —

  Include any other specific details such as Room #, directions, etc.

• (Yes - Optional on Site) Provide address for vendor conference: —

  Include any other specific details such as Room #, directions, etc.

• (Yes - Optional on Site) List all dates that necessary staff are available to host the vendor conference:
• (Yes - Mandatory Virtual) List all dates that necessary staff are available to host the vendor conference:
• (Yes - Optional Virtual) List all dates that necessary staff are available to host the vendor conference:
• Who will be evaluating this solicitation? —
  • If this is an RFB, provide name of one evaluator
  • If this is an RFP, provide names of three evaluators minimum. If evaluator is outside of the County, provide email address also.
• Pricing table required? —

  Always select "Yes" unless this is a Highway WisDot Design Project

• External Pricing Document?* —

  Is an external pricing document being used?