The New York City School Construction Authority has awarded the buildings contract for its new St. John Villa campus in Arrochar, Staten Island, to Navillus Tile Inc., which does business as Navillus Contracting, at $382,345,000, according to the SCA's bid tabulation system. Navillus was low when the SCA opened bids June 16.

Citnalta Construction Corp. was the only other bidder, at $442,377,000. That's $60,032,000, or 15.7%, above the low bid. The low bid sits 7.3% below the average of the two.

“On a job this big, the SCA doesn't wait to see who shows up. It decides who gets through the door.”

The contract covers two schools, a maintenance building, an athletic field, an off-site parking lot and turning the old chapel into a multipurpose space, according to the SCA's invitation to bid. It runs 1,365 calendar days, with liquidated damages of $5,000 a day.

It's the third construction contract the SCA has bid on the site, and each one has come in bigger than the last.

In June 2024, five firms bid the demolition of eight buildings. Perciballi Industries of Staten Island was low at $9,498,000. In June 2025, four firms bid early work and site preparation. Navillus was low at $89,433,000, with the second bid 27% higher.

Add up the three low bids and the campus has priced out at $481,276,000 so far. Navillus holds $471,778,000 of it.

The buildings solicitation carries one alternate, Deduct/Alternate Bid Item #1. It asked bidders to price what comes off the base bid if the SCA drops two pieces of the campus: the PS/IS building and the chapel conversion. Navillus priced that deduct at $119,000,000. Citnalta priced it at $153,300,000.

If the SCA takes the deduct, the Navillus contract drops to $263,345,000, about 31% less work. The SCA has not said whether it will.

The SCA let the job as a limited bid: it picks which prequalified firms get invited to bid as prime, according to the invitation. The contract requires a 100% performance bond and a 100% payment bond.

The spread between bids tightened with each phase. On the demolition, the high bid was nearly double the low. On the site work, the high bid ran 51% over the low. On the buildings, the two bids came in 15.7% apart.

The $382,345,000 low bid is the largest of the 935 bid openings on The RFI Wire's bid board. Nine have topped $100 million. The next-largest new SCA school on the board, HS 382 in Brooklyn, went for $107,403,000 at its low bid.

The city bought the campus in 2018 and said it would add more than 1,000 seats, according to the Office of the Mayor. The SCA's environmental review now puts the program at about 2,114 seats: a 764-seat gifted and talented PS/IS, plus two intermediate and high schools with about 1,350 seats between them. The SCA accepted the final environmental impact statement as lead agency in December 2024. Work is scheduled to run into 2030.

The SCA's goal is that at least 30% of subcontracted work goes to certified minority-owned, women-owned or locally based business enterprises. The goal is measured against the value of the subcontracts, not the full $382,345,000. The low bidder has to file a Subcontractor Utilization Plan within 10 business days of the notice of intent to award.

To count toward that goal, a firm has to be prequalified with the SCA in its trade. A certified firm that only passes goods or services through to someone else doesn't count, according to the solicitation, because it isn't performing a commercially useful function.

The SCA had bidders name and price their HVAC, plumbing and gas fitting, and electrical subcontractors inside the bid. A bid without them was non-responsive. New York's Wicks Law, which applies to the SCA, generally calls for separate contracts for those three trades on large public jobs. Where separate contracts aren't required, the law has bidders list those subs and their prices with the bid, under General Municipal Law Section 101.

The SCA estimated each of those three trades at more than $5 million and required the named subs to be prequalified at that level, above the usual $1 million tier. It cited the size of the project and mechanical work running on six sites at once. The low bid names two firms in each trade.

The named firms are Forsythe Plumbing & Heating and Eagle 1 Mechanical on plumbing, Grand Mechanical and North Shore Climate Control on HVAC, and Multi-Phase Electrical Services and Kanta Electric on electrical. Grand Mechanical and Kanta Electric were also named on the 2025 site work.

The scope, schedule, bonding terms and deduct come from the SCA's solicitation. The bid amounts and award status come from the SCA's bid tabulation system. The SCA has not posted an award date.

What to do next

If you want work on this campus, the call goes to Navillus or the six named trade subs, not the SCA. The schedule is 1,365 days with $5,000 a day in liquidated damages behind it, so have your pricing and paperwork ready before they ask.

If you're counting on the M/WBE goal, check two things first: that you're prequalified with the SCA in your trade, with the right trade codes, and that you'll do the work yourself. A firm that only passes work through won't count toward the plan.

And watch the deduct. If the SCA takes it, the PS/IS building and the chapel conversion come off the job, so don't build your year around that scope until the SCA decides.

Marcus Bell is an RFI Wire TV presenter. This story was reported and edited by The RFI Wire news desk. Updated October 17 to add the contract award and Navillus's legal name.