The city's plan to renovate the 25th floor of 1 Centre Street was supposed to open bids in July. Then August. Then September. Then October 1. Now the Department of Citywide Administrative Services says Thursday, October 22 at 11 a.m. That's five addenda, and every one of them did the same thing: moved the date.
Here's the job. DCAS wants one contractor to renovate the whole 25th floor of the Municipal Building in Lower Manhattan for what the bid booklet calls the City of New York future office pilot project. The agency's estimate is $36,659,611. It's a lump-sum competitive sealed bid run through PASSPort under PIN 85624B0012, and the contract gives you 1,095 calendar days, three years, to reach substantial completion.
“Five addenda, and every one of them did the same thing: moved the date.”
Now look at the date trail. Addendum 1, dated June 17, pushed bids to July 15. Addendum 2, July 8, pushed them to August 12 and released the pre-bid attendance sheet. Addendum 3, August 6, went to September 10. Addendum 4, August 31, went to October 1. Addendum 5, September 21, landed on October 22. Each extension showed up six to ten days before the deadline it replaced. None of the five answered a question, changed a drawing or touched the spec. Every one says all other terms stay the same.
So if you shelved this job after the first or second push, it never went away. And if you've been waiting on answers, the record shows none have been posted.
The bid form itself is two lines. Item A is material sold and delivered. Item B is labor. Add them up and that's your bid. No alternates, no allowances, no unit prices. You also have to file the Bidder's Identification of Subcontractors form in PASSPort with your bid, and the bid sheet says a missing form gets the bid rejected.
Bid security is a 10% bid bond, or a 2% certified or bank check made out to DCAS. On the agency's estimate, that bond covers about $3.7 million. Performance and payment bonds run 100% each and are due within 10 days of the award notice. Retainage is 5% until substantial completion, and you post a 1% deposit guarantee when you file for substantial completion, with a one-year guarantee period.
Here's what the ad didn't tell you. Liquidated damages for lateness are marked N/A, omitted intentionally, in Schedule A. The prime can't sub out more than 76% of the contract price, so on a $36.7 million job the GC is carrying at least $8.8 million of work with its own forces. And insurance requires asbestos and lead liability plus contractors pollution coverage at $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, even though the booklet and Schedule A don't describe any abatement scope. The only scope language in those documents is one line about renovating the floor. The real scope lives in the drawings and specs, and the contract says that where they conflict, you're deemed to have priced the most expensive way unless you got a written ruling first.
This job runs under the city's 2025 Citywide New Construction and Renovation project labor agreement, which makes it exempt from Wicks. There's no separate plumbing, HVAC and electrical prime. The GC carries them, and you have to name your plumbing, HVAC and electrical subs at bid time. You don't need to be union to bid. The low bidder signs a Letter of Assent before award, and every sub signs one before it works. One catch worth a question to DCAS: the standalone Letter of Assent in the bid set is headed for the older NYC Agency Renovation PLA, while the 2025 agreement's own exhibit carries the new name.
For M/WBE firms, this is a real number. The goal is 30%, split 16% Black American and 14% Hispanic American. Let's say the job goes near the estimate. That's about $11 million for certified subs, roughly $5.9 million and $5.1 million on the two goals. And because the prime contract tops $25 million with goals attached, the PLA lets up to 7% of the work, about $2.6 million on the estimate, go to certified M/WBE subs that aren't union signatories, after the prime tries the locals first. Waiver requests are due seven calendar days before bids.
The posted pre-bid attendance sheet lists firms including Prismatic Development Corp., AWL Industries, Ashnu International, M TO-Pros Development, The Excel Group, Urbahn Architects, Loring Consulting Engineers and TYLin Group. That's who showed up to a meeting, not who's bidding, and a posted sheet is a floor, not a head count.
What to do now: pull the full set from the PASSPort solicitation page, drawings and specs included, and price off those, not the booklet. Line up your plumbing, HVAC and electrical subs by name before the 22nd. If you're an M/WBE sub, get your number to the GCs on that attendance sheet this week. Ask DCAS in writing about the Letter of Assent form and whether any abatement is in scope. And file early. DCAS asks for bids 48 hours ahead, and after five moves, nobody should be counting on a sixth.