DASNY opened eight bids on July 31 for the CUNY Medgar Evers College Athletic Center ADA Upgrades and Associated Asbestos Abatement, solicitation 3273209999 CR37, at 1150 Carroll Street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The contract is posted as an MBE/WBE set-aside, open to minority business concerns only. Universal Construction Resources is the apparent low at $22,700,000.
The full field, low to high: Universal Construction Resources $22,700,000; Zaman Construction $25,627,000; Skyline Industries $26,721,405; Infinity Contracting Services $29,666,000; ACS System Associates $33,475,000; Fidelis Contracting $33,762,000; Lima Contractors $34,722,000; Whitestone Construction $48,565,000.
Run the tab. Universal is $2,927,000 under Zaman, a 12.9 percent gap. Low to high is $25,865,000, a 113.9 percent spread: Whitestone's number is more than double the low. The median is $31,570,500. DASNY put the estimated cost range at $22,215,560 to $24,554,000. The low sits $484,440 above the bottom of that range, inside it. The second bid is $1,073,000 over the top, and the other six are further out. Goals on the contract are 25 percent MBE, 10 percent WBE and 6 percent SDVOB, and the job runs under a Project Labor Agreement. An apparent low is not an award.
The scope reaches well past the gym. DASNY's ad calls for ADA restroom upgrades on the cellar, first, mezzanine, second, third and fourth floors of the Carroll Street building, and the conversion of the former dining hall into an athletic center with a fitness room, locker rooms and offices. It adds a new elevator, a new stair from the cellar to the first floor, a new entrance vestibule with changes to the Crown Street stairs, ramp and canopy, rooftop steel dunnage for new mechanical equipment, new panelboards and lighting, fire alarm relocations and additions, and asbestos remediation.
Why this matters. A $22 million general contract restricted to certified minority- and women-owned primes is not common, and this one drew eight of them. The spread says the field read the job very differently: six bids fall between $25.6 million and $34.7 million, and the eighth is near $48.6 million. Only the low number fits the money DASNY said it had in mind.
What to do next. Elevator, plumbing, electrical, fire alarm, steel and abatement subs should call Universal Construction Resources while the award is pending. The job is RFI-000965 on our board. DASNY posts its plan holder and interested-sub lists on the solicitation page, and that is where to find the other primes if the award moves.
Update, Sept. 28, 2026: DASNY's award table shows the contract went to Universal Construction Resources Inc. on December 1, 2025, at $22,850,000, which is $150,000 more than the $22,700,000 read at the opening. The page does not explain the difference.