Four separate solicitations landed on the board this week for the same building: Building 73 at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, all needing a new roof and a repaired facade, all due the same morning — October 7. OGS didn't post one contract for a general contractor to run the job. It posted four: a general contract worth $15 million to $20 million, an electrical package worth $250,000 to $500,000, an HVAC package in the same $250,000-to-$500,000 band, and a plumbing package worth $100,000 to $250,000.

That's not an accident and it's not four unrelated jobs that happen to share an address. New York's Wicks Law requires public agencies to bid HVAC, electrical, and plumbing work separately from the general contract on most jobs over roughly $3 million — one prime, three tagalong trades, all opening on the same day, all needing to be coordinated on the same roof. A GC that wins the $15-to-$20 million package doesn't get to just hire its own electrician; it has to work around whoever OGS picks separately.

“A GC that wins the general contract doesn't get to hire its own electrician — Wicks Law already picked three other bidders for that job.”

For an electrical or HVAC shop, this is the whole point of watching OGS closely: a $250,000-to-$500,000 package like this doesn't show up structured this way very often, and it's sized for a mid-size mechanical or electrical contractor rather than a design-build giant. For a general contractor bidding the $15-to-$20 million piece, the math changes too — schedule risk now depends on three other contracts you don't control, all closing the same hour you do.

This is the same Wicks-driven split the desk has flagged on other campuses this year, and it's worth checking OGS's active list for more Creedmoor-style postings before October 7 — if this building's split is standard practice for the agency's psychiatric-campus portfolio, other buildings on that campus are likely to follow the same four-contract pattern.

All four solicitations are posted on the NY State Contract Reporter; firms chasing any one package need to track the other three closely, because a walkthrough scheduling conflict or an addendum on the GC contract can move the mechanical trades' bid date too.