Bellevue Hospital Center is getting a new fire alarm system, and H+H isn't making it easy to bid. The agency posted the notice to the City Record on August 14 — Fire Alarm Replacement at 462 First Avenue — and we've now got the details nailed down: PIN 11202201, bids due September 16 at 11 a.m. But you don't get to that date without clearing a gate first.

Two mandatory pre-bid meetings are on the calendar: Tuesday, August 25, and Wednesday, August 26, both at 10 a.m. in the 9th-floor conference room of Bellevue's Administration Building, 506 1st Avenue at 27th Street. Skip both and you can't bid at all. Show up to either one, though, and you get something the notice doesn't publish anywhere else — the bidder's list, handed out in the room. Want to know who you're up against on this job? Walk in and find out.

“Want to know who you're up against on this job? Walk in and find out.”

The paperwork has teeth, too. The job runs under H+H's Project Labor Agreement — the winner signs a Letter of Assent — and subcontracting is capped at 75 percent, so the awarded contractor self-performs at least a quarter of the labor. The M/WBE goal is 30 percent on bids of $500,000 or more, and certified payroll goes in through NYC eComply.

This one's been on our board since August 14 as RFI-000278; what changed today is that the PIN and the bid date are confirmed against the City Record. No tab to read yet, no bidder count to report. Just a hard eligibility gate eight days out, and a competitor list you can't see unless you're standing in that conference room.