GSA PBS moved its New York and New Jersey construction IDIQ to November 4, the same hour its D.C. metro IDIQ closes, and one contracting office now takes both

GSA’s Public Buildings Service issued Amendment 0002 to the New York and New Jersey multiple award IDIQ on October 21 and moved proposals from October 28 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern on November 4. That is the same hour the D.C. metro area multiple award IDIQ has been due since Amendment 007 was issued on October 14. A week ago these two solicitations were seven days apart, which was itself a change from being one day apart. They are now on the same clock, and the same contracting office takes both: PBS Centralized Acquisition Services IDV East runs the New York and New Jersey procurement and the D.C. metro procurement.

The two packages are built the same way on purpose. Both are multiple award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity construction contracts for work at federally owned and federally leased space. Both are coded NAICS 236220 with a $45,000,000 small business size standard and PSC Z2AA. Both are total small business set-asides, and both reserve awards for particular categories of small firm: the D.C. procurement reserves three contracts each for 8(a), HUBZone, WOSB and SDVOSB firms out of roughly eighteen awards, and the New York and New Jersey procurement reserves awards for HUBZone, SDVOSB and WOSB firms within its zones. The New York and New Jersey contract divides its territory into Zones 1, 2, 3 and 4, defined by county, carries a $500,000,000 ceiling across all awards over five years, anticipates a maximum of about 25 contracts, and lets an offeror win one zone or several. The D.C. contract names the general contractor as the single point of responsibility for each project and competes task orders among awardees under FAR 16.507-2 fair opportunity. A firm qualified for one is, in the ordinary case, qualified for the other.

That is the problem. The two documents ask the same kind of company for the same kind of proof at the same minute, from one office, and the bonding capacity, the key personnel and the past performance narratives that a small construction firm can put behind a credible IDIQ proposal are not divisible by two. Until October 21 a team chasing both could sequence them a week apart. It now has to choose which one gets the stronger submission, or split and weaken both. The firms most affected are the ones with a footprint in both corridors, and there are more of them than the geography suggests, because the Northeast small business construction bench that works federal buildings in Manhattan and Newark also works them in Washington, Silver Spring and Arlington. Anyone in that position should decide this week which lane is primary and write the second proposal to a deliberately narrower claim rather than a diluted version of the first.

There is a second reading, and it is the more useful one for a firm that is not ready for either. On October 19, two days before the New York and New Jersey extension, the sibling office on the other coast posted market research for a new vehicle: PBS Centralized Acquisition Services IDV West opened a sources sought for an Alaska construction IDIQ, covering small repair and alteration projects in federal buildings throughout the state, with responses due November 19 and no solicitation in existence yet. It asks respondents to identify any small business, WOSB, EDWOSB, veteran-owned, SDVOSB, SBA-certified small disadvantaged, 8(a) or HUBZone status they hold. That is the stage at which a set-aside decision is still open and a capability statement still moves it. The East office is closing two doors on the same afternoon; its West counterpart is deciding how wide to open a third. The cost of answering the Alaska notice is a few hours. The cost of a thin proposal on November 4 is a seat on a regional construction portfolio for the life of the contract.