Surf Park Development Opportunity in Inland San Diego, CA

This Request for Qualifications (“RFQ”) offered by the Padre Dam Municipal Water District (“District”) is soliciting Statement of Qualification (“SOQs”) responses for the development and operation of a new active recreation water amenity (the “ARWA”) adjacent to Santee Lakes located in the City of Santee, California.  See Exhibit A in the RFQ. 

Expanding park and recreation opportunities is a priority for the District.  The guiding document to accomplish this is the Santee Lakes Dynamic Vision Plan, dated July 2016 (“DVP”) which can be located at http://www.santeelakes.com/dynamic-vision-plan. Area 5 in the DVP includes Pond C and calls for “Future Development.”  During the development of the DVP the Staff contemplated “active” recreation in this area with the desire to introduce water contact activities, i.e. surf park, cable ski park, aqua park, etc.   

The District’s desire for this type of activity is to meet the following goals: (1) Expand recreational opportunities at Santee Lakes; (2) generate revenue for Santee Lakes; (3) showcase the benefits of water recycling.  Through a private-public partnership, the District envisions the development and operation of an “active recreation” amenity with water contact in the area of “Pond C” just north of Santee Lakes, which is approximately 13.7 acres, 10.5 acres of which is the current surface water area of Pond C itself.  See Exhibit B (Pond C Site Boundary). The amenity should provide the community with a water contact recreation experience using recycled water which could take a wide variety of forms.

In addition to the primary water contact recreation activity, the District is interested in other amenities as part of the development such as a restaurant, retail shop(s), ancillary recreation attractions, potentially overnight lodging, etc.  See Exhibit C (Dynamic Vision Plan Concepts).  These concepts are provided as examples that the District developed several years ago.  The District is not expecting the ARWA to mirror these designs in orientation, program or designs presented in Exhibit C. Beer and wine sales will be considered as part of the project, however, spirits and cannabis use and sales will not. 

The amenity should be available to the general public however, the District is open to a hybrid membership/general admission concept.  The goal of the development is to create a community asset that provides for family entertainment in the East County of San Diego.  The District would require the developer to pay for all entitlement, development, capital improvement, operating and maintenance costs associated with the project.   

Capable, experienced, and creative developers or development teams are invited to submit SOQs regarding their development expertise, past success with developing similar projects, financial capabilities, and other pertinent information.  The District will select a shortlist of respondents (each, a “Respondent”) with sufficient experience, demonstrated creativity, financial resources, and personnel to participate in an upcoming request for proposals. 

At the conclusion of the two-stage solicitation process, the District intends to award a long-term ground lease for the development of the Site to the Respondent deemed the best qualified to achieve District’s development objectives.