Two envelopes. That is all the School Construction Authority got at 3:40 p.m. on June 16 for the job that converts the former St. John Villa Academy campus in Arrochar, Staten Island, into public schools. Navillus Tile, Inc. bid $382,345,000. Citnalta Construction Corp. bid $442,377,000. That is a $60,032,000 gap, 15.7%, between the only two general contractors who priced it (solicitation 26-026695). The apparent low is not an award.

The SCA's tab describes the package as the St. John Villa PS/IS, the IS/HS, a fieldhouse, the chapel and athletic work (the description is cut off on the agency's page). Each bidder also priced an alternate: Navillus at $119,000,000 and Citnalta at $153,300,000, a $34.3 million difference. The tab ranks the field on the base bid and does not say whether the SCA will take the alternate. With two bids the middle of the field is simply the midpoint, $412,361,000, and the low sits $30 million under it. Both firms posted bid bonds, according to the tab.

The site has been years in the making. The SCA's environmental review, accepted as a final environmental impact statement in December 2024, lays out three schools at 57 Cleveland Place: a roughly 764-seat gifted-and-talented primary/intermediate school and two intermediate/high schools with about 1,350 seats between them, roughly 2,114 seats in all, plus an athletic field, a maintenance building, an internal driveway network and parking. The review put construction from the first quarter of 2025 through the third quarter of 2030.

Work is already moving on the ground. The SCA's capital-project data shows demolition at the 45 Cleveland Place building under construction since November 17, 2025, planned to finish in May 2027, and demolition at the 57 Cleveland Place annex completed in July 2025. The same data lists the new IS/HS at 45 Cleveland Place, the chapel renovation, the athletic field and final sitework, a parking lot at 40 Cleveland Place and a new maintenance building on Hastings Street as separate projects that have finished design and have not started construction.

The tab also names the subcontractors Navillus listed for the three trades New York's Wicks Law singles out on public work. Plumbing: Forsythe Plumbing & Heating Corporation and Eagle 1 Mechanical Inc. HVAC: Grand Mechanical Corp. and North Shore Climate Control, Inc. Electrical: Multi-Phase Electrical Services, Inc. and Kanta Electric Corp.

Why this matters. A two-bid field on a job this size tells you who in this market can carry the bonding and the balance sheet for a campus-scale new build, and it is a short list. The SCA's amended five-year plan, noticed in February, carries $6.13 billion to build more than 33,400 new seats in an estimated 78 buildings, so this will not be the last nine-figure new-school opening on the calendar. When only two firms show up, a $60 million difference between them is the whole price discovery the agency gets.

What to do next. The mechanical, plumbing and electrical slots are named on the tab. Everyone else, from site and foundation work through masonry, steel, roofing, finishes and the field itself, prices to Navillus as the apparent low. Watch for the SCA's award before committing crews; the board item is RFI-000384.

Update, Sept. 28, 2026: The SCA's bid tabulation for solicitation 26-026695 now marks Navillus Tile, Inc. as the awarded bidder.