DASNY's winter bid openings on smaller CUNY and Office of Mental Health jobs kept drawing crowds. Four solicitations opened between November 25 and January 14 drew 101 bids between them. On every general construction tab, the apparent low came in under the agency's advertised estimate, some by a lot. An apparent low is not an award on any of these.

Kingsborough Community College pool, 26 bids. Opened November 25, solicitation 342350/C542: the Building G Health and Physical Education pool renovation with asbestos abatement at 1925 Oriental Boulevard in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. The scope is the pool renovation with demolition and abatement, new mechanical equipment, and fire alarm, dunnage, electrical and locker room work. 2 Saab Construction is low at $7,457,000. Project Eye Consultants is second at $9,473,824, a $2,016,824 gap, or 27.0 percent. KG Construction Services is third at $10,267,000, and Maven Construction is high at $17,850,000, a 139.4 percent spread. DASNY estimated $11.5 million to $11.75 million. The low is $4,043,000, or 35.2 percent, under the bottom, and 15 of 26 bids came in under it. The job is RFI-000875.

Macaulay Honors College cellar and restrooms, 22 bids. Opened December 16, solicitation 3723809999 CR26: a full renovation of the cellar and basement of Macaulay's five-story, 1904 building at 35 West 67th Street on the Upper West Side, with new walls, finishes and complete mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, a new cellar energy recovery unit, rooftop AC units on new elevated steel, and eight restrooms. ABCD Construction is low at $7,144,499, JEMCO Electrical Contractors second at $7,554,059 (a $409,560 gap, 5.7 percent), Vernon Construction & Development third at $7,674,000, and Spencer Contracting high at $11,584,750, a 62.1 percent spread. DASNY estimated about $7.6 million. Only the top two came in under it. The job is RFI-000859.

Kingsboro Psychiatric Center roofs, 32 bids. Opened January 13, solicitation 3689309999 CR6: new flat roofing for Buildings 25 and 28 at 681 Clarkson Avenue in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, with the electrical, plumbing and drainage work that goes with it. Tri-Rail Designers & Builders is low at $1,485,000 and PB Contracting second at $1,545,000, a $60,000 gap, 4.0 percent. Ethos Plumbing ($1,567,450), Probuildero ($1,568,689) and A.B.C.D. Construction ($1,599,987) follow. Sajid Contracting is high at $3,400,786, a 129.0 percent spread. DASNY estimated $1,650,000 to $1,750,000. The low is $165,000, 10.0 percent, under the bottom, and five bids came in under the range. The job is RFI-000844.

Nathan Kline Institute elevators, four prime contracts, 21 bids. Opened January 14, solicitation 3776909999, at the Office of Mental Health research campus, 140 Old Orangeburg Road in Orangeburg, Rockland County: modernization of two hydraulic passenger elevators, converted to holeless systems, and one freight elevator, converted to machine-room-less traction. The general construction contract (CR6) drew 13 bids. Ethos Plumbing is low at $2,068,000, ACS System Associates second at $2,125,000, and Sea Breeze General Construction high at $4,161,000. That low is $132,000, 6.0 percent, under the $2.2 million to $2.5 million estimate. The trade contracts went the other way. Electrical (CR7) drew two bids, Fanshawe Inc. doing business as Rockland Electric at $342,000 and Grandeur Hills Group at $372,384, against an estimate of $215,000 to $260,000. HVAC (CR8) drew five: Grandeur Hills $312,371, Tameer $320,900, ACS $330,000, S&O Construction Services $421,419 and Planet Mechanical $612,441, against $140,000 to $180,000. Plumbing (CR9) drew one bid, S&O at $185,600, against $87,500 to $125,000. The four lows add up to $2,907,971, inside DASNY's combined range of $2,642,500 to $3,065,000. Goals on this job are 5 percent MBE, 5 percent WBE and 3 percent SDVOB. The general construction contract is RFI-000835.

Why this matters. Twenty-plus bidders on a $1.5 million roof or a $7 million cellar means a lot of general contractors chasing the same slice of state work, and the lows are coming in under DASNY's numbers because of it. The spreads show how uneven the pricing is: three of these four general construction tabs ran better than 100 percent from low to high. The Nathan Kline trade packages show the opposite problem. Small electrical, HVAC and plumbing contracts drew one to five bids each, and every low was above the estimate.

What to do next. Subs should get prices to the apparent lows: 2 Saab at Kingsborough, ABCD at Macaulay, Tri-Rail at Kingsboro and Ethos at Nathan Kline. On Kingsborough, the 27 percent hole between first and second is worth watching before you book anything. Electrical, HVAC and plumbing shops in the Hudson Valley should note how thin the Nathan Kline trade fields were. That is where a new bidder has the best shot on DASNY's multi-prime jobs.

Update, Sept. 28, 2026: DASNY's award tables show Macaulay went to ABCD Construction Corp. on February 19, 2026, at $7,144,499. At Nathan Kline, general construction went to Ethos Plumbing Corp. on May 26, 2026, at $2,068,000, electrical to Fanshawe Inc. doing business as Rockland Electric on March 26 at $342,000, and plumbing to S&O Construction Services on March 13 at $185,600. Three contracts went to the second-lowest bidder: Kingsborough to Project Eye Consultants on March 26 at $9,473,824, Kingsboro to PB Contracting on March 26 at $1,545,000, and Nathan Kline HVAC to Tameers Inc. on March 24 at $320,900. The pages do not give reasons.