The Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority ("RCRRA") is seeking a qualified and experienced professional facility management firm to provide a full range of professional management services, including maintenance and operations at a 33 acre Union Depot site including its historic Head House, which had been partially converted into a 39-unit residential condominium and a destination banquet facility – operations that continue in the building today.

Listed on the National Register of Historic places since 1974, the Union Depot is one of America's great rail stations of the early twentieth century. RCRRA seeks a partner to help achieve its vision of making the Union Depot one of America's great public buildings and transit hubs for the 21st century.

The $243 million renovation of the Union Depot began in January 2011, and is scheduled for completion at the end of 2012, when Amtrak's Empire Builder and local and intercity buses will begin to serve the building. The Central Corridor LRT, also currently under construction, is scheduled to open in 2014 at the doorstep of the Union Depot building, in front of a new one-acre public plaza. The Central Corridor LRT will connect downtown Saint Paul, downtown Minneapolis, the State Capitol complex, and the diverse ethnic populations of University Avenue, as well as several higher education institutions, including the University of Minnesota.

Plans are also being advanced for several other regional transitways as well as high speed rail service to Chicago to serve the Union Depot within the decade. The Union Depot building is expected to serve approximately 1,000,000 transit riders annually when the Central Corridor LRT opens, and several million more riders annually as other regional transit and intercity train corridors are developed.

Proposals are due February 21, 2012.

For additional information and links to the RFP document, please visit http://bit.ly/uniondepotsolicitations

This RFP is being issued concurrently with the issuance of a Request for Proposals to identify a preferred operator of a bicycle center in the Union Depot Building and a Request for Qualifications to identify organizations interested in providing services for the activation and development of the Union Depot site, primarily of the Union Depot Building.