Renaissance Office, LLC v. State, General Services Department, Property Control Division

2001 NMCA 066, 31 P.3d 381, 130 N.M. 723
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 18, 2001
DocketNo. 21,570
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2001 NMCA 066 (Renaissance Office, LLC v. State, General Services Department, Property Control Division) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Renaissance Office, LLC v. State, General Services Department, Property Control Division, 2001 NMCA 066, 31 P.3d 381, 130 N.M. 723 (N.M. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

SUTIN, Judge.

{1} The State of New Mexico General Services Department (GSD) asks this Court to reverse the district court’s appellate determination favoring a protest of GSD’s cancellation of a request for proposals for leased office space under the Procurement Code. GSD seeks review in this Court of whether Section 13-1-182 permits an award of contract damages in the absence of a finding of a valid, written contract, inasmuch as Section 37-l-23(A) grants immunity to State agencies such as GSD from actions based on contract except when based upon a valid, written contract. We decline GSD’s request and affirm.

BACKGROUND

{2} The State of New Mexico Department of Health (DOH), in conjunction with GSD’s Property Control Division (PCD), issued a Request for Proposals for Leased Office Space (RFP). In November 1997 Petitioner Renaissance Office, LLC, whose partners include Allen Branch and Petitioner Michael Branch, submitted a build-to-suit, twenty-year lease proposal that gave the State the option to purchase the property for one dollar at the end of the lease. On December 19, 1997, DOH notified Gerald Chavez, Chief of PCD’s Leasing & Property Management Bureau, of DOH’s selection of the Renaissance proposal “as the top ranked proposal” and requested PCD’s approval to proceed with the Renaissance project. In that notification, DOH also asked PCD to reissue the RFP if the project in question was not acceptable. In addition, DOH asked PCD for “a sample letter to be issued to the top offer.”

{3} On January 13, 1998, PCD’s Chavez authorized DOH to “proceed with notification to ... Renaissance ... that they are the ‘Top-Ranked Offeror’ and may proceed with Lease Record Drawings.” PCD stated: “We look forward to receiving copies of your notification letters and receiving the Lease Record Drawings and the Lease Agreement.” On the same day, DOH selected the Renaissance Office Park site and instructed Renaissance to prepare lease record drawings and submit them to PCD for review. DOH informed PCD of this.

{4} In a conversation with PCD’s Chavez on February 18, 1998, Allen Branch learned of a PCD concern about the legality of the purchase option in the Renaissance proposal. Branch corresponded with Chavez on February 19, 1998, about the legal aspects of the issue and suggested PCD consider alternatives, including a sole source procurement based on the fact that the Branches were the only source offering lease-purchases.

{5} The record in this case does not reflect any correspondence or telephone communication between Renaissance and PCD from February 19 until May 12, 1998. At some point, presumably after the January 13 selection notification, Renaissance proceeded to prepare lease record drawings, which PCD received on April 8. On April 23, DOH sent the lease record drawings to PCD’s Chavez, stating that DOH “reviewed them and finds them to be acceptable to our needs as requested through the request for proposal.”

{6} Meanwhile, Renaissance prepared and submitted a twenty-year lease on the required GSD form, showing Renaissance as lessor and DOH as lessee, signed by Michael Branch on April 22, 1998. Under “Other Provisions,” Renaissance inserted: “State of New Mexico has the option to purchase the office building at the end of the lease term for $1.00 (one dollar) plus all closing costs associated with the transferring of ownership.” An attachment to the lease detailed the purchase-option concept, explaining why the build-to-suit, lease-to-own offer was a “win-win situation” for both parties. This attachment was identical to that attached to the Renaissance proposal submitted to DOH in November 1997 and selected by DOH in January 1998.

{7} The lease was signed by a Special Assistant Attorney General on May 7, 1998, under the printed form statement “Additions to the standard Lease of Real Property have been reviewed and approved by:” and next to the handwritten statement “5/7/98 letter to' David Vigil from Lester H. Swindle Director, Property Control Division.” This May 7 letter from Swindle to Vigil, a DOH administrator, discussed whether leases could exceed ten years, and stated, among other things, that PCD had decided to waive the GSD Rule 92-501, section 12.2, maximum ten-year lease term limitation and to permit RFPs to “solicit a maximum lease term, not to exceed, twenty years.” The lease was signed by DOH on May 12.

{8} Following a conversation Allen Branch had with the Office of the Secretary of GSD on or about May 12 regarding the purchase option, Renaissance sent a letter to GSD stating the Renaissance view that the purchase option was legal, in that neither DOH nor the State was obligated to purchase the building. Renaissance was nevertheless “willing to strike the purchase-option clause if the attorney general” did not agree. On May 14, PCD (Swindle) wrote to DOH (Vigil) that the RFP process had not been followed, in that neither “Signed (Lessor/Lessee) Lease Record Drawings” nor a lease “without the lease-purchase option pursuant to section 12.3 of GSD Rule 92-501” had been submitted to PCD. Noting that “this violates the terms of the RFP,” PCD allowed five days to remedy “this situation.” PCD attached Section 12.3 “Options to Purchase: Any proposal which includes an option to purchase shall be deemed nonresponsive and shall be rejected.” PCD stated that “[ujpon receipt of the aforementioned documents, PCD will proceed to review their acceptability, and continue the lease process.” PCD stated, too, that it would not consider approval or disapproval of the lease until all RFP requirements were followed, and that PCD’s final determination would be made in the best interest of the DOH and the State.

{9} On May 28,1998, Renaissance wrote to DOH, expressing concern that “Property Control is considering not signing our lease that we have been working on since last October.” Branch noted that neither DOH nor PCD had objected to or revised the lease record drawings and that Renaissance proceeded to lease preparation according to the “agreed upon terms as per the RFP and agency negotiations.” The letter also pointed out Renaissance had concluded on a timely basis the development of a 20,000-square foot building, involving construction drawings, engineering studies, forward commitments, land deposits, soils tests, surveys, lot split applications, title work, at a total cost of $245,000, including appraisal and legal fees. In this letter, Renaissance requested reimbursement of costs plus a reasonable profit if PCD did not sign the lease under NMSA 1978, § 13-1-182 (1984)1 (Ratification or termination after an award) of the Procurement Code, NMSA 1978, §§ 13-1-28 to -199 (1984, as amended through 1999).

{10} On June 2, after learning that DOH and GSD lawyers “suppose[d] that if you drop the lease-purchase option provision in the lease, that it would violate other bidders]’] rights,” Renaissance suggested to DOH that DOH and PCD had authority under the RFP to drop the purchase option and proceed with the project. Presumably referring to Section 13-1-182, Renaissance asserted that because DOH had actually signed the lease, PCD had only three options under State law: “ratify the lease, amend the lease to comply with the law, or terminate the lease and reimburse expenses and reasonable profit.”

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Bluebook (online)
2001 NMCA 066, 31 P.3d 381, 130 N.M. 723, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/renaissance-office-llc-v-state-general-services-department-property-nmctapp-2001.