Project Information

Bid Title

Request for Qualifications: 26-1003 Avent Ferry Road Festival Street Design

Issuing Agency

Town of Holly Springs

Location

North Carolina

Published Date

Nov 4, 2025

Closing Date

Dec 19, 2025

Government Level

State & Local

Status

Closed

Original Source

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Bid Documents

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Project Description

Request for Qualifications:  26-1003 Avent Ferry Road Festival Street Design

• Due Date: December 19, 2 p.m. via e-mail
• Solicitation

Attachment Preview

Town of Holly Springs

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

RFQ#26-1003 Avent Ferry Road Festival Street Design

ISSUE DATE: October 3, 2025

DUE DATE: December 19, 2025 at 2:00pm EST

Prepared by

Holly Springs Development Services

September 2025

Holly Springs, North Carolina

I. PURPOSE

The Town of Holly Springs is seeking Qualifications from qualified consulting firms

(Consultants) to provide professional engineering and design services for the Avent

Ferry Road Festival Street in downtown Holly Springs. The goal of this project is to create

a pedestrian Festival Street designed to prioritize the pedestrian experience and

provide a location for events and festivals throughout the year. The street would

generally be open to vehicular traffic with a reduced street width but could be closed

to vehicular traffic during events. The design is anticipated to include elements such as

a curbless street section, enhanced paving materials, a large tree canopy, decorative

lighting, gathering spaces and seating, and public art. The Town is also interested in

incorporating new technologies into the design to create an exceptional user

experience.

II. PROJECT BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Over the last 20 years, Downtown Holly Springs has transitioned from a sparsely

populated, small town residential district complemented by important historic properties,

community churches, and a handful of businesses and civic buildings to an active,

mixed-use destination for a community that has seen tremendous residential growth in

that time. Downtown today is experiencing an important evolution that must balance

the community’s desire to build a more vibrant community and cultural center while

respecting the integrity of historic development patterns and the expectations of long-

term residents.

Downtown functions as one of the few truly mixed-use districts in Holly Springs. The

diversity of civic, cultural, employment, residential, retail, and food and beverage uses

across the district creates the framework for the social and economic success of

Downtown. In 2023, the Holly Springs Town Council adopted the Downtown Area Plan

(Appendix E to Vision Holly Springs Section 1: Land Use & Character Plan) which

describes the community’s vision for the Downtown, with a specific focus on the

Downtown core. The Plan aspires to create a downtown where people can live, work

and be entertained.

This image from the

Downtown Area Plan

shows the vision for

Downtown Holly

Springs with a focus

on the intersection of

S Main Street and

Ballentine Street. The

proposed Festival

Street can be seen

behind Town Hall,

outlined in blue.

Avent Ferry Road Festival Street Design, TOHS Project Number #26-1003

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The Downtown Area Plan identified five key community priorities for Downtown, including

the development of a Festival Street on Avent Ferry Road. The Festival Street concept is

a redesign of portions of Avent Ferry Road to emphasize the pedestrian experience and

allow for the closure to vehicular traffic during events. Through changes in paving

materials and enhanced landscaping, the Festival Street can become an adaptive

place to better connect Main Street and the Cultural Center.

Illustrative images of a potential design for the Festival Street were created for the

Downtown Area Plan to communicate the intended use of the street and the Town is

now seeking qualified consulting firms (Consultants) to provide professional services for

conceptual design (and a probable cost estimate), community engagement, civil

construction drawings, permitting, and construction management for the Festival Street.

This image from the Downtown Area Plan demonstrates a potential design for the Festival Street

from the intersection of Avent Ferry Road and Ballentine Street looking north towards Center

Street.

Avent Ferry Road Existing Conditions

Avent Ferry Road through Downtown Holly Springs is a 2-lane collector street with on-

street parking spaces located on one side of the cross section. The street serves as a

parallel route to S Main Street and provides access primarily to local business, institutional

uses, and public parking lots. Formally an NCDOT maintained facility, the Town took over

street maintained several years ago. As Avent Ferry Road leaves the Downtown Area, it

intersects with NC 55, a 4-lane limited access highway, and continues south as a 4-lane

median divided facility. The Avent Ferry Road corridor provides access to the Downtown

area for several neighborhoods and commercial areas west of NC 55.

Project Limits

The focus of the Festival Street design project is Avent Ferry Road between W Ballentine

Street to E Center Street (approximately 500 linear feet). Through the design process, the

Town seeks a design that can be expanded in future years either north to W Earp Street,

Avent Ferry Road Festival Street Design, TOHS Project Number #26-1003

3

to provide a connection to the future Mims Park located at the southeast corner of W

Earp Street and Avent Ferry Road, or south to Rogers Street. While the future expansion is

not part of this process, it should be considered in concept development.

Project Area Map

III. SCOPE OF SERVICES

The Avent Ferry Road Festival Street is anticipated to have the following design

characteristics:

• A curbless street design to allow better flexibility as a public space.

• Retractable bollards, entry features, or other elements to separate the Festival

Street from vehicular travel and to protect pedestrians at all points of entry.

• Paving materials and other street features that delineate vehicular areas and

create a low-speed street environment when vehicular use is allowed.

• Paving materials and patterns and vegetation that provide a streetscape with a

unique look and feel that also complements and reinforces the downtown brand.

• Enhanced landscaping that provides a large tree canopy and enhances

stormwater treatment.

• Ability to accommodates periodic closures to vehicular traffic for events such as

outdoor markets, parades, or community celebrations while maintaining the

ability for the street to serve local business, institutional uses, and public parking

lots, including designated on-street parking areas, when the street is not closed

to vehicles.

• Street lighting, overhead string lights, gathering spaces and seating, and public

art.

• Intersection improvements at Avent Ferry Road and W Ballentine Street to

improve pedestrian safety.

• Other elements as determined though the design development process.

Avent Ferry Road Festival Street Design, TOHS Project Number #26-1003

4

The Consultant will develop and implement an extensive and innovative community

engagement program that seeks to gain meaningful input from community members

of all ages and backgrounds. Broad-based community engagement is considered

critical to the success of this Project. It is anticipated that this would include an

advisory/working group of town staff and a variety of workshops and participatory

events with the public. In addition, online community engagement software/tools will

need to be utilized in order to provide a robust and well-rounded community

engagement program. The Consultant will facilitate all community engagement

activities and provide sufficient personnel to run these events. It is expected that at

least two (2) large community workshops will be conducted in Phase 1 and one (1)

large community workshop in Phase 2, as well as a variety of smaller outreach events

(i.e. pop-up events) unless the Consultant’s program details an acceptable

alternative engagement program. At a minimum, the community engagement

program should address the following:

• Identification and engagement with key stakeholders/property owners along the

corridor.

• Engagement strategies and activities, tied back to reaching all identified

stakeholder groups.

• Elected official engagement.

• Timeline for community engagement activities and desired type of community

feedback at project checkpoints or milestones (visioning, validating, etc.).

• Communication methods for sharing information.

• Strategy for effective and consistent messaging across platforms and messengers.

• Meaningful involvement of low income and underrepresented populations.

The professional services that may be required to undertake this project include, but are

not limited to:

• Civil Engineering

• Urban Design & Placemaking

• Landscape Architecture

• Public Engagement

• Structural Engineering

• Hydraulic/Environmental Engineering

• Transportation Engineering

• Traffic Analysis

• Land Surveying

• Utility Coordination

• Construction Administration

• Geotechnical

• Construction Engineering

• Cost Estimation and Bid Price Comparison

• Bridge/Structure Inspections

• Permitting (Local, State, Federal)

Responses should demonstrate overall qualifications to fulfill the requirements of the

scope, to implement concept design development, public engagement, civil

construction documents, project permitting, construction administration, construction

engineering/inspections, and construction materials testing.

Avent Ferry Road Festival Street Design, TOHS Project Number #26-1003

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Commodity Codes

• NAICS 237310Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction
• NAICS 541330Engineering Services

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