Eleven general contractors bid a $72 million school repair job for the NYC School Construction Authority, and the top three landed inside $1.3 million of each other on the package. Bids opened at 11:42 a.m. on Thursday, April 23. Ashnu International, Inc. was low at $72,333,919.

The job is SCA solicitation 26-026690 at P.S. 211, 1919 Prospect Avenue in East Tremont, the Bronx, a building the city also lists as X193. It rolls two separate SCA design packages into one contract. The first is the shell: roofs, flood elimination, exterior masonry and parapets. The second is the guts: electrification and heat pump systems, an electrical service upgrade, a lighting upgrade and low-voltage electrical systems. The SCA's anticipated contract awards list in February priced each of those eight pieces in its top bracket, $4 million and over. It's on our board as RFI-000527.

The tab, low to high: Ashnu International, Inc. at $72,333,919; NEHAL CONTRACTING, INC. at $73,464,000; KG Construction Services, Inc. at $73,609,000; NORTHEAST RESTORATION CORP. at $77,840,000; Adam's European Contracting Inc. at $77,900,000; ABC CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTING, INC. at $78,482,000; Roma Scaffolding, Inc. at $79,211,000; Whitestone Construction Corp. at $79,499,000; VENUS GROUP, INC. at $93,390,000; NEELAM CONSTRUCTION CORP. at $97,485,000; and KEL-TECH CONSTRUCTION, INC. at $112,000,000.

Run the numbers. First to second is $1,130,081, or 1.6%. Ashnu to KG, third, is $1,275,081. The next five bids sit in a $1.7 million band from $77.8 million to $79.5 million, and the median of all 11 is $78,482,000, so the low is 7.8% under the middle of the room. Then the field breaks: the last three came in $13.9 million to $32.5 million above that band. The high bid is 54.8% over the low. The SCA did not publish an engineer's estimate with the tab. Apparent low is not an award.

Six of these firms also bid the SCA's other giant exterior job of the winter, the Thomas Jefferson campus in East New York, which opened February 3. Ashnu finished second there, $912,919 behind Roma Scaffolding, Inc. This time Roma was seventh. Nobody owns this tier of work. The firms with the bonding for a $70 million school job trade places from one tab to the next.

Why build it as one contract? The SCA's February 2025 capital plan amendment calls water infiltration "the single greatest cause of accelerated deterioration" of its buildings, which is why roofs, parapets, masonry and flood work travel together. The City Council's review of the February 2026 plan amendment shows $1.4 billion for electrification and $2.75 billion for building exteriors.

Why this matters. A $72 million school job carries a deep sub list: roofers, masons, window and waterproofing crews, a Wicks-law plumbing, HVAC and electrical prime under the GC, and heat pump equipment suppliers. The top three bidders were close enough that any of them could have carried the job, so their sub numbers were in the same range too.

What to do next. Price to the apparent low, Ashnu International, Inc., and keep your number alive with NEHAL CONTRACTING, INC. and KG Construction Services, Inc. until the SCA names the winner. The tab for 26-026690 is where the award flag and the named Wicks subcontractors show up. The SCA's anticipated contract awards list carries more combined exterior and electrification packages still in design.

Update, Sept. 28, 2026: The SCA's tab now marks Ashnu International, Inc. as the awarded bidder at $72,333,919. It names V.C. VITANZA SONS INC. for plumbing, Tameer Inc. for HVAC and STANCO SYS. ELEC. CONTRACTING INC for electrical as the Wicks subcontractors.