Friday, Jun 29, 2007
National Park Service Intermountain Regional Director Michael Snyder announced today that Carlsbad Cavern Trading, LLC, a New Mexico-based company owned by Santa Fe-based businessman Armand Ortega, has been selected to provide food and beverage, retail, kennel and vending services at Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
“The selection of Carlsbad Cavern Trading ushers in a new era of concession services at Carlsbad Caverns,” said Snyder. “We look forward to the contribution they will bring to the overall visitor experience at the park.”
The selection of Carlsbad Cavern Trading for the Carlsbad contract was made in a competitive process. In addition to Carlsbad Cavern Trading’s submission, the park received four other proposals, including a quality proposal from the park’s current concessioner, The Cavern Supply Company.
Park superintendent John Benjamin noted, “Cavern Supply has played an extremely important role in this park. They’ve provided an important service to park visitors—and the National Park Service—for eighty years. They are and will always be an integral part of Caverns’ history.”
The new concessions contract is the first at Carlsbad to be awarded under the National Park Concessions Management Improvement Act of 1998. That law eliminated the preferential consideration given to existing concessioners in an effort to enhance competition for concession-related business opportunities within parks.
In addition to Carlsbad Cavern Trading and Cavern Supply Company, ARAMARK Sports & Entertainment Services, Inc., Deleware North Companies Parks and Resorts, Inc., and Service Systems Associates also submitted proposals for the business opportunity at Carlsbad Caverns.
A team of experts analyzed the proposals based on criteria specified in the Concessions Management Improvement Act. Those criteria include protecting and conserving park resources, providing necessary and appropriate facilities and services to the public at reasonable rates, the experience of the concessioner, the financial capability of the concessioner, and proposed franchise fee.
Now that a company has been selected, the National Park Service will incorporate elements of the highest scoring proposal submitted by Carlsbad Cavern Trading into the concession contract that the NPS will award formally in a few months. Carlsbad Cavern Trading will begin operations at the park upon completion of the visitor center rehabilitation project, which is expected in March 2008.
Guidelines used to evaluate all five proposals can be found at http://concessions.nps.gov/policy.cfm.
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