Inactive Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Set-Aside (FAR 19.14)

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT PAY NOR REIMBURSE ANY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH RESPONDING TO THIS REQUEST. THE GOVERNMENT IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO AWARD A CONTRA... THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT PAY NOR REIMBURSE ANY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH RESPONDING TO THIS REQUEST. THE GOVERNMENT IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO AWARD A CONTRACT AS A RESULT OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. The Department of Veterans Affairs is seeking a qualified Architect-Engineering (AE) firm to provide Schematics, Design Development, Construction Documents, Technical Specifications, Construction Period Services, Site Visits, Cost Estimates, As-Built Documentation, and all other related information for Project 561-24-100 Relocate and Install new Nuclear Medicine Suite at VA New Jersey Healthcare System, East Orange Campus, 385 Tremont Ave., East Orange, N.J. 07018.This Project will renovate the Nuclear Medicine suite and install the new Gamma Camera on the first floor. This requirement is being procured in accordance with the Brooks Act as implemented in FAR Subpart 36.6. Applicable NAICS code is 541310 and small business size standard of $12.5 Million. Magnitude of Construction is between $5,000,000.00 and 10,000,000.00. This is a 100% Service- Disabled Small Business Set Aside. The anticipated award date of the proposed A-E Contract is on or before August 23, 2023. Potential contractors must be registered in SAM (www.sam.gov ) and are visible/verified/certified as SDVOSB in Veterans Small Business Certification (https://veterans.certify.sba.gov/) at time of submission of their qualifications in order to be considered for an award. In order to assure compliance with FAR Clauses, 852.219-75 VA Notice of Limitations on Subcontracting Certificate of Compliance for Services and Construction (NOV 2022) and VAAR 852.219-73 VA Notice of Total Service- Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business Set Aside (NOV 2022), all firms submitting a SF 330 for this notice are required to indicate what percentage of the cost of contract performance will be expended on the concerns employees and in which discipline(s) and percentage of cost of contract performance to be expended (and in what disciplines) by any other consultant/subcontractor or otherwise used small or large business entity(s). Any consultant/subcontractor or otherwise business entity(s) used must be identified by name, office location and size/type of business (i.e., SDVOSB, VOSB, 8(a), small, large, etc.). Failure to provide this information will deem the firm s SF 330 submittal as nonresponsive and preclude further evaluation. All A/E firms are advised that in accordance with VAAR 836.606-71 the total cost of the production and delivery of designs, plans, drawings and specifications shall not exceed six (6) percent of the estimate cost of construction. Other A-E fees are not included in these six (6) percent. Additionally, FAR Clause 52.236-22 (c) - Design Within Funding Limitation, will be applicable to this procurement action. SCOPE OF SERVICE REQUIRED Project No. Project 561-24-100 Relocate and Install new Nuclear Medicine Suite will include but is not limited to, remodeling and reconfiguring of existing available space, as well as installation of the new Nuclear Medicine equipment at center area of first floor. The area is currently occupied by Medical Administration and Support offices. The A/E shall perform a complete survey to the existing conditions and provide recommendation list with phasing and functionality to the VA for selection; upon approval the A/E will develop and prepare the construction document package. X. LOCATION VA New Jersey Healthcare System East Orange Campus 385 Tremont Ave. East Orange, N.J. 07018 COST RANGE Estimated Construction Cost Range: Between $5,000,000.00 and $10,000,000.00 TYPE OF CONTRACT CONTEMPLATED The Department of Veterans Affairs is contemplating awarding a firm fixed price contract. DESIGN COMPLETION PERIOD: The Department of Veterans Affairs requires design and contract support services. The A/E shall deliver 100% bid documents in 270 calendar days from the Notice to Proceed (NTP). SELECTION CRITERIA DESCRIPTIONS The selection criteria descriptions are provided below. PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY FOR SATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE OF REQUIRED SERVICES. Provide brief resumes of proposed team members who will specifically serve as the Project Managers and Designers of Record proposed for this project only. Include specific experience and qualifications (i.e., education, training, registration, certifications, overall relevant experience, and longevity with the firm). The Designers of Record shall perform and direct the design within their respective discipline and shall sign and seal the drawings. The lead designer in each discipline must be registered but does not have to be registered in the particular state where the project is located. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE AND TECHNICAL COMPETENCE Specialized experience and technical competence required for this specific project, including, where appropriate, experience in energy conservation, pollution prevention, waste reduction, and the use of recovered materials. CAPACITY This factor evaluates the ability of the firm, given their current projected workload and the availability of their key personnel, to accomplish the possible myriad of design projects in the required time. The general workload and staffing capacity of the design office will be evaluated. List current projects with a design fee of greater than $20,000 being designed in the firms office. Indicate the firms present workload and the availability of the project team (including sub-consultants) for the specified contract performance period; Describe experience in successfully delivering projects per performance schedule, providing timely construction support, and successfully completing multiple projects with similar delivery dates PAST PERFORMANCE: VISN2 will evaluate past performance on recent and relevant contracts with government agencies (emphasis on VA work) and private industry in terms of cost control, quality of work, compliance with performance schedules and a record of significant claims against the firm. Recent is defined as performance occurring within five (5) years of the date of this Sources Sought, except those ongoing projects must have begun no less than one (1) year prior to the issuance of this Sources Sought. Relevancy is defined as performance of work on projects that are similar in scope within a VA hospital setting in relation to the type of projects anticipated under the resultant contracts. Respondents with no previous past performance shall state this when addressing the selection criteria. Where there is no record of past performance, the proposal will be evaluated neither favorably nor unfavorably. Superior performance ratings on relevant projects may be considered more favorably in the evaluation. Location in the general geographical area of the project and knowledge of the locality of the project; provided, that application of this criterion leaves an appropriate number of qualified firms, given the nature and size of the project To be rated ACCEPTABLE for this evaluation factor, the A/E firm must be within 450 miles from the prime contractor s main office or official satellite office to the VA New Jersey Healthcare System, East Orange Campus, 385 Tremont Ave., East Orange, N.J. 07018 This distance is determined according to http://maps.google.com/ This factor evaluates the distance the AE firm's design office or official satellite office(s) from the location of work (VA Medical Center). Please provide the address (es) and distance of your closest office to the address listed in iv. above. The extent to which potential contractors identify and commit to the use of service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses, Veteran-owned small businesses, and other types of small businesses as subcontractors. Experience in construction period services to include professional field inspections during the construction period, review of construction submittals, support in answering requests for information during the construction period, and support of construction contract changes to include drafting statements of work, and cost estimates shall be included as an evaluation criterion when construction period services is included in the statement of work for A-E services. PLEASE NOTE: The AE Evaluation Board must be provided with complete and accurate information for ALL seven (7) evaluation factors above in order to rank as qualified and eligible firms. Therefore, the AE firm must expand upon, as it deems necessary, on any evaluation factor not well demonstrated or addressed with Part 1A to Part IG and Part II of the SF330. The AE firm shall use Part IH and/or use additional sheets to supplement/address all evaluation factors to clearly demonstrate its qualifications. LIMITATIONS 852.219-73 VA Notice To Total Set-Aside For Verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (NOV 2022) (a) Definition. For the Department of Veterans Affairs, Service-disabled veteran-owned small business concern : (1) Means a small business concern: (i) Not less than 51 percent of which is owned by one or more service-disabled veterans or, in the case of any publicly owned business, not less than 51 percent of the stock of which is owned by one or more service-disabled veterans (or eligible surviving spouses); (ii) The management and daily business operations of which are controlled by one or more service-disabled veterans (or eligible surviving spouses) or, in the case of a service-disabled veteran with permanent and severe disability, the spouse or permanent caregiver of such veteran; (iii) The business meets Federal small business size standards for the applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code identified in the solicitation document; and (iv) The business has been verified for ownership and control and is so listed in the Vendor Information Pages database, (http://www.VetBiz.gov). (2) Service-disabled veteran means a veteran, as defined in 38 U.S.C. 101(2), with a disability that is service-connected, as defined in 38 U.S.C. 101(16). (b) General. (1) Offers are solicited only from service-disabled veteran-owned small business concerns. Offers received from concerns that are not service-disabled veteran-owned small business concerns shall not be considered. (2) Any award resulting from this solicitation shall be made to a service-disabled veteran-owned small business concern. (c) Agreement. A service-disabled veteran-owned small business concern agrees that in the performance of the contract, in the case of a contract for: (1) Services (except construction), at least 50 percent of the cost of personnel for contract performance will be spent for employees of the concern or employees of other eligible service-disabled veteran-owned small business concerns; (2) Supplies (other than acquisition from a nonmanufacturer of the supplies), at least 50 percent of the cost of manufacturing, excluding the cost of materials, will be performed by the concern or other eligible service-disabled veteran-owned small business concerns; (3) General construction, at least 15 percent of the cost of the contract performance incurred for personnel will be spent on the concern's employees or the employees of other eligible service-disabled veteran-owned small business concerns; or (4) Construction by special trade contractors, at least 25 percent of the cost of the contract performance incurred for personnel will be spent on the concern's employees or the employees of other eligible service-disabled veteran-owned small business concerns. (d) A joint venture may be considered a service-disabled veteran owned small business concern if - (1) At least one member of the joint venture is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business concern, and makes the following representations: That it is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business concern, and that it is a small business concern under the North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) code assigned to the procurement; (2) Each other concern is small under the size standard corresponding to the NAICS code assigned to the procurement; and (3) The joint venture meets the requirements of paragraph 7 of the explanation of Affiliates in 19.101 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. (4) The joint venture meets the requirements of 13 CFR 125.15(b). (e) Any service-disabled veteran-owned small business concern (non-manufacturer) must meet the requirements in 19.102(f) of the Federal Acquisition Regulation to receive a benefit under this program. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Unless paper offers are specifically authorized in an individual solicitation, all responses to solicitations must be submitted electronically as described below. Responses submitted in a paper form are unacceptable. Failure to comply with this requirement may jeopardize the possibility of receiving an award due to noncompliance with the submission requirements. EMAIL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS Interested firms having the capabilities to perform this work must submit: ONE (1) ELECTRONIC SF 330, including Parts I and II, and attachments (if any) to Lateisha.Robinson@va.gov no later than 3PM, Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Thursday July 27, 2023. Submittals received after the date and time identified will not be considered. The submittal will be date and time stamped by the Microsoft Email system and will be the official record of receipt for the submission. All SF 330 submissions shall be clearly indicated in subject line, displaying the solicitation number and project number and title (abbreviated and shortened is okay). Submission is to be no more than a total of fifty (50) pages; size of emails is not to exceed 10 megabytes (MB). If more than one email is sent, please number emails in subject line as 1 of 2, 2 of 2 etc. All SF 330 submissions must include the following information either on the SF 330 or by accompanying document: Cover Page with Solicitation Number, Project Number and Title Table of Contents Copy of Current A/E License Copy of current https://veterans.certify.sba.gov/ SDVOSB/VOSB certification DUNS Number Cage Code Tax ID number Email address and Phone number (including the area code) of the Primary Point of Contact.