Title
Heartwood Internet (B)
Explanation
The Heartwood neighborhood is one of the two major community initiatives in the Eastside Redevelopment District for the Gainesville CRA. The development includes new construction of 34-single family homes on the former Kennedy Homes site in East Gainesville. Community stakeholders worked with the CRA on the naming, design and planning for this initiative and the project has been much anticipated by the community and the CRA and its Boards.
At its June 19, 2017 meeting, the Gainesville CRA Board approved for the CRA to act as “developer” to build all the related infrastructure needed for the neighborhood. There was a request from the Board to pursue providing GRUCom internet service to the entire neighborhood and CRA Staff agreed to look into the costs to provide this for Heartwood.
GRUCom and the CRA began discussions to provide internet service to the Heartwood development in April of 2017. GRUCom subsequently provided a pricing proposal with four service options, including both bulk and retail arrangements for service in July of 2017. Subsequently the Broadband Connectivity Subcommittee (BCS) requested to discuss the proposals at their meeting on July 23rd, and the CRA requested, and was provided a refreshed quote for service for that meeting.
GRUCom’s current business model provides options for a bulk subscription arrangement, commonly referred to as “GATOR NET” (with site connection costs included in ongoing monthly charges paid by the HOA or property management company on behalf of the entire community) or a retail subscription arrangement, commonly referred to as “GRUNet” (with the developer paying for upfront connection costs allowing each individual unit owner/tenant elect to subscribe and pays an individual monthly charge only for their service). Under either types of subscription arrangement, GRUCom provides two site-preparation options. First, GRUCom conducts all advance site preparation work for an ad...
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