Fifteen general contractors bid the NYC School Construction Authority's exterior job at Clara Barton High School on Tuesday, June 2, and VENUS GROUP, INC. came out on top. It bid $24,184,000 for roofs, windows, parapets and exterior masonry at 901 Classon Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It's SCA solicitation 26-23272D, opened at 12:40 p.m., and it's on our board as RFI-000428.

Adam's European Contracting Inc. was second at $25,000,000, $816,000 back, or 3.4%. Whitestone Construction Corp. was third at $25,591,000, BQE INDUSTRIES, INC. fourth at $25,830,000 and Army Construction, LLC fifth at $26,276,300. The high bid was ANSU CONSTRUCTION, INC. at $38,543,000. That puts the spread at 59.4%, and the median of the field at $29,746,000. The low number is 18.7% under the middle of the room.

Look at the top six. Venus, Adam's European, Whitestone, BQE, Army and KEL-TECH CONSTRUCTION, INC. ($26,600,000) all finished within 10% of the low. After that the numbers jump: J & N CONSTRUCTION GROUP CORP. at $28,400,000, NEHAL CONTRACTING, INC. at $29,746,000, and everybody else north of $31 million. That's two different reads of the same drawings.

This one carries no flood elimination line. It's the four big envelope pieces only. That lines up with how the SCA says it builds these jobs: its February 2025 capital plan amendment says that when its condition survey rates roofs, parapets, windows or masonry "poor" or "fair to poor," the other exterior pieces rated fair or worse ride along in the same project. That same amendment listed Clara Barton only for a $666,666 cafeteria and multipurpose room upgrade. The exterior job showed up later on the SCA's anticipated contract awards list, slated for advertisement in April 2026.

No engineer's estimate was published with the tab. Apparent low is not an award.

Why this matters. A $24 million school exterior with 15 bidders tells you the SCA's GC bench is deep and pricing tight at the front. For subs, the six firms inside 10% of the low are the ones worth knowing: they're the ones pricing this kind of work to win.

What to do next. Roofing, window, masonry and scaffolding subs: get your numbers to VENUS GROUP, INC. and keep them live with Adam's European Contracting Inc. until award. Plumbing, HVAC and electrical get named at award under the Wicks Law, so if you're not on the low bidder's sheet yet, you're late.

Update, Sept. 28, 2026: The SCA's bid tabulation for 26-23272D now marks VENUS GROUP, INC. as the awarded bidder. Its named Wicks subcontractors are Forsythe Plumbing & Heating Corporation, CHAPMAN & EVANS, INC. and Stanco Systems Electrical Contracting Inc.