The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York posted a bid Thursday for a domestic hot water system upgrade and asbestos abatement job at CUNY Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, and it carved the whole contract out for small business concerns and minority business concerns only.
The posting, filed in the New York State Contract Reporter as CRN 2140380, covers Medgar Evers' AB1 building at 1638 Bedford Avenue. DASNY filed it October 30 with proposals due December 16, giving bidders about seven weeks to put a package together.
“A large mechanical contractor without that certification can't even submit, no matter how competitive the number.”
That's a real window for a job this size, and it needs to be — swapping a domestic hot water system usually means draining and isolating risers building-wide, and pairing it with asbestos abatement means the job likely touches old pipe insulation or mechanical room wrap that's been sitting since the building went up. Whoever wins this prices both scopes together, not as separate trades bolted on.
The set-aside matters more than the scope here. DASNY didn't just set an MWBE participation goal on a job open to anyone — it restricted bidding itself to small business concerns and minority business concerns, meaning a large mechanical contractor without that certification can't even submit, no matter how competitive the number. That's a different animal from the usual goal-and-report structure, and it narrows the bidder pool DASNY expects to draw from considerably.
DASNY's classification on this ad is listed as a straight general construction/vertical rehabilitation job, not a design-build or CM-at-risk delivery, so expect a single prime bid with subs lined up underneath rather than a negotiated team.