Wanted: Someone to sell doughnuts and keychains at 14,115 feet and willing to pay Colorado Springs at least $1 million a year for the privilege.

That’s a lot of coffee and rubber tomahawks.

But it’s the price of leasing the Summit House at the top of Pikes Peak, as well as Glen Cove Inn at 11,000 feet and Crystal Reservoir Visitors Center at 9,000 feet.

Next month, the city will receive proposals for the concessionaire contract for the first time in 15 years.

Unlike most city contracts that require the city to pay a vendor, this one pays the city.

“That’s the best thing about an RFP (request for proposals),” said the city’s contracting manager, Steve Gess. “We’re asking them what they would propose offering us.”

While in past years the city has received $500,000 annually, Gess said the city will ask $1 million a year under the next contract.

“That’s what we want, and we want proposals that offer further incentives,” he said, considering the vendor has grossed roughly $4 million a year in the past.

The money will be plowed back into the city’s Pikes Peak Highway enterprise, which is gradually paving the road to the summit and doing other erosion-control improvements.

In addition, the city wants bidders to propose ideas for interpretive programs on Pikes Peak and also for construction of a new Summit House, which is gradually sinking into the icy tundra and is held up with dozens of heavy-duty jacks.

The contract spans years to allow the contractor to recover investment costs in such things as floor polishers, tables, chairs, heaters and a fudge kettle.

Those and other items, including a boiler, generator and water system, cost more than $386,000 and are for sale if the new contractor wishes to buy them.

The current contractor, Aramark, shared the cost of the equipment, but the city owns it.

The Summit House, the historic Glen Cove Inn and other improvements are owned by the U.S. government and managed by the Forest Service, but the city has operated the facilities since 1961.

In 1990, the Forest Service issued the city a 30-year special use permit to operate the 19-mile Pikes Peak Highway and other facilities, including the Summit House atop the peak.

Philadelphia-based Aramark, which provides professional services, including food, hospitality and facility management across the United States and in 18 countries, won the contract in 1993.

The new contract will be for a seven-year term with a six-year option, to coincide with the renewal date of the city’s special use permit.

A new provision calls for the concessionaire to provide vending machines and a small selection of merchandise at the Summit House from December through March because the Cog Railway runs during those months, weather permitting. That hasn’t been required before.

“The idea is to have an area where customers from the train can have access to restrooms and refreshments when concessionaire staff is unable to drive to the summit,” the city’s request for proposals states.

Mike Kavanagh, general manager of Aramark in Colorado Springs, said he wasn’t sure how that requirement would be met and that his company is reviewing the proposal.

“I’m sure we will (bid) as will numerous other companies,” he said.

But the work is unusual in more ways than one. Employees are shuttled up and down the mountain daily, for one thing, and managers must comply with strict maintenance standards.

The vendor also must provide the city with several vehicles in exchange for hauling and disposal of water, trash and wastewater.

One of the most challenging things is the very thing that brings people to the summit.

“It’s just working at that altitude,” Kavanagh said, adding that employees occasionally become ill, as do customers. That’s why the city also requires the contractor to provide a first-aid station and licensed emergency medical technicians.

Aramark has a long history managing historic spots and national parks, including Ellis Island in New York, William Randolph Hearst’s 165-room estate on 250,000 acres that’s now a state monument near San Simeon, Calif., and Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas in Arizona.

“This is probably the highest one, though,” Kavanagh said. “It’s a job with a view.”

Proposals are due Sept. 19. The city expects to issue a contract in November, which will become effective Jan. 1.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazette.com

IN ADDITION

The city wants bidders to propose ideas for interpretive programs on Pikes Peak and also for construction of a new Summit House.