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

Synopsis THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. THIS IS A PRESOLICITATION. NOTICE FOR ARCHITECT/ENGINEERING (A/E) DESIGN SERVICES; NO SOLICITATION PACKAGE WILL BE ISSUED UNTIL AFTER AN EVALU... Synopsis THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. THIS IS A PRESOLICITATION. NOTICE FOR ARCHITECT/ENGINEERING (A/E) DESIGN SERVICES; NO SOLICITATION PACKAGE WILL BE ISSUED UNTIL AFTER AN EVALUATION HAS BEEN MADE ON THE PROVIDED SF-330. ONLY THE A/E FIRMS RESPONDING TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT BY SUBMITTING AN SF-330 PACKAGE ON TIME WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR INITIAL EVALUATION. NAICS: The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code/Size Standard for this procurement is 541330, Engineering Services. The Small Business Size Standard is $25.5 Million in annual receipts. The FSC/PSC is C1DZ, Architect and Engineering- Construction: Other Hospital Buildings. SET-ASIDE: Notice of 100% Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Set-aside. This is a 100% set-aside for SDVOSB firms only. The firms registered and visible in the SBA Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) database at https://veterans.certify.sba.gov when SF330 s are submitted. Failure of a prospective SDVOSB to be verified by the SBA VetCert at the time the SF 330 is submitted shall result in elimination from consideration. All Joint Ventures must be verified at time of submission and submit agreements that comply with 13 CFR 125.15 prior to contract award. Prospective Contractors are cautioned that a proposal submitted in response to this solicitation must meet the criteria identified by 38 CFR, Part 74. The SDVOSB concern agrees that in the performance of the contract, the concern will comply with the limitation on subcontracting requirements in accordance with VAAR Clause 852.219-75, VA Notice of Limitations on Subcontracting - Certificate of Compliance for Services and Construction. REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: The deadline for all Request for Information (RFI) is 4:00 PM CT on May 16, 2025. All RFIs must be submitted in writing via email to Eric Reis, Contracting Officer, at eric.reis@va.gov and Benjamin Woehrle, Contract Specialist, at Benjamin.woehrle@va.gov. An amendment to the RFQ will be issued to all prospective firms via SAM.gov and will include the RFI and the corresponding Government response. Unless formally amended in writing, all terms, and conditions of the RFQ will remain unchanged. SF 330 DATE OF RECEIPT/DUE DATE: Interested firms having the capabilities to perform this work must submit one (1) electronic SF 330 and attachments (if any) no later than (NLT) 10:00 AM (CT) June 02, 2025. FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES: All offerors are required to have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM / www.sam.gov) at the time of offer submission. Firms will be evaluated by the A/E Evaluation Board. The three most qualified firms will interview with the selection board. If multiple firms are equally rated as third place, all firms rated equally as third place and higher will be invited to an interview. Responses should be submitted on an SF330. The SF-330 can be downloaded through the GSA Forms Library at: https://www.gsa.gov/forms-library/architect-engineer-qualifications Prospective firms shall address all selection criteria factors within their submitted SF330 packages. Submission of information incorporated by reference is not allowed. Interested firms shall submit SF 330 via electronic transmission via email to Eric Reis, Contracting Officer, at eric.reis@va.gov with a copy to Benjamin Woehrle, Contract Specialist, at Benjamin.woehrle@va.gov by the designated date/time specified. Please provide Pre-Solicitation Number, Remodel B48 1st Floor CLC, and Firm Name in Subject Line of email. When submitting SF330s, if more than one email is sent, please number emails in Subjects as 1 of n (where n represents the total number of emails to complete the submission). Submittals received after the date and time identified on page one (1) will not be considered. Ensure file size under 7 MB. No SF 330 hard copies will be accepted. Failure to comply with this requirement may jeopardize the possibility of receiving an award for the contract due to noncompliance with the terms of the solicitation. Submitted SF330s will include the following elements: 1. Standard Form 330 (Rev. 07/2021) Architect-Engineer Qualifications 2. SF330, Section H: Additional Information Firms submitted SF330s will be evaluated by an A/E evaluation board. The following evaluation criteria will be used to evaluate SF 330 technical proposals: GENERAL SOLICITATION AND CONTRACT INFORMATION: Network Contracting Office (NCO) 23 has a need for design services at the St. Cloud VAHCS to provide a remodel of building 48 CLC. This procurement will be procured pursuant to the Selection of Architects and Engineers (formerly known as The Brooks Act) Public Law 92-582, and as implemented in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 36.6 and VA Acquisition Regulations (VAAR) and VA Acquisition Manual (VAAM) Part 836 and M836 respectively. It is NCO 23 s intent to award a contract to the firm that is determined to be the most highly qualified in their interview evaluation. Design fee limitations will be subject to FAR 15.404-4(c) (4)(i)(B) regarding the 6% design fee limitation. Pricing for the production and delivery of designs, plans, drawings, and specifications shall not exceed 6% of the estimated cost of construction, excluding fees. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES REQUIRED: The scope of this design work is to develop a comprehensive set of drawings and specifications provided by the professional Architectural Engineer (A/E) services for the renovation of a portion of the first floor of building 48, encompassing approximately 10,000 square feet. This project will include but is not limited to design, demolition, and renovation to transform the space into a fully compliant Community Living Center (CLC) space. The A/E will conduct site visits and verify the accuracy of the existing documentation, and review any relevant information obtained from the VA. The design will be refined though follow-up site visits and thorough documentation review to address and outstanding questions or clarification throughout. The final deliverable will include in both PDF and CAD format. This project may also require construction period services if funding is available for construction. 1. The A/E shall redesign a portion of the first floor of building 48 to comply with the VHA design guides PG -18-15 and required directives. The A/E will design all updated areas to current guideline in the Small House Model design guide wherever possible. 2. The A/E shall design, calculate, and stamp drawings to create a set of documents under the A/E s licenses. 3. The A/E shall assume design, architecture, and engineering responsibility for all design elements of the project. 4. This project will also update the life safety egress routes for the CLC area, which might include two new stair towers if newly constructed infrastructure square footage if no other options are available. If new stair towers are required per code requirements the A&E will provide three options to be reviewed and to be selected by the VA New Exterior stair tower design not using any existing square footage. New Interior stair tower design located inside existing area reallocating it from its existing condition and designating it as new operational stairwell or stairwell s required buy code. New combination of pervious options using some existing space and some new construction to get new stair tower or towers for evacuation requirements. 5. Coordinate and update specific site location with master plan and adjacent projects currently in design and solicitation. 6. Design the utility connections for the project scope and future growth. Evaluate the capacity of all existing utilities for their ability to accommodate said growth. 7. Full redesign of required areas such as resident rooms, dining, bathrooms, halls, and minor construction assemblies. 8. The A/E shall consider as part of interior changes to ensure a common private space is updated for family space. This space shall be finished to be multi-functional, including a hospice appropriate function. 9. This project will also update and address all needs for the legionella requirements per design guide throughout the area project scope. 10. A/E design to include support space and current requirements of support space per VA directives. Reference SPS, Pharmacy, EHRM and Logistics. Adhere to and design per the current St Cloud Design/Construction Standards. SELECTION PROCESS: This notice is a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) of A-E firms/lead designers interested in contracting for this work. The A-E firm as used in this RFQ means an individual, firm, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity permitted by law to practice the profession of architecture or engineering that will have contractual responsibility for the project design. This procurement consists of a two (2) stage evaluation process. Stage One (1) will consist of the evaluation of the technical submission package. All responsive submissions will be evaluated by the Technical Evaluation Board (TEB). The firms will be ranked. After the evaluation of the submissions, at least three (3) of the most highly rated firms will be invited for interviews and further evaluated in Stage Two (2). Award of the contract will be made to the most highly qualified firm listed in order of preference by the TEB. The firms must ensure the Standard Form (SF) 330 Architect Engineer Qualifications Parts I and II reflect the entire design team. Rate/price proposal(s) will be requested following the selection of the most technically qualified firm(s). All SOW attachments and site specific will be provided to the highest rated firm. An award will be made as long as the negotiation of rates and hours leads to a fair and reasonable price. If negotiations with the highest rated firm are unsuccessful, the firm will be notified that negotiations are terminated. Negotiations will then be initiated with the next highest rated firm, and so on until an award can be made. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR STAGE ONE (1): Submissions of completed Standard Form 330 (SF 330) received in response to this notice will be evaluated by a government evaluation board in accordance with The Selection of Architect and Engineering statute, 40 U.S.C. Ch11, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 36, to determine the most highly qualified firms. Evaluation of past performance and experience may include information provided by the offeror, customer inquiries, government databases, and publicly available sources. Offerors are responsible for collecting and submitting past performance questionnaires with their final packages to the Veterans Affairs (VA) Network Contracting Office (NCO) 23 Contracting Officer before the closing date of this synopsis. EVALUATION CRITERIA: Each firm must demonstrate their qualifications with respect to the selection criteria listed below. Evaluation criteria (A), (B), (C), (D) and (E) are of equal importance; criterion (F) is of lesser importance than criteria (A), (B), (C), (D) and (E); and criterion (G) is of least importance and will be used as a tiebreaker among technically equal firms. SF-330s will be evaluated to determine the most highly qualified firm/team based on submitted SF-330 responses. Failure to provide requested data or comply with the instructions in this synopsis and SF-330 instructions could result in a firm considered being less qualified or eliminated from consideration. Specific evaluation criteria include: A. Professional qualifications: SF-330, Part I, Block E. NCO 23 will consider any information, which may be pertinent to this criterion, including the following: proposed key personnel (reference primary discipline list below), professional registration, and competence, related experiences to accomplish this work, education, and years with the company. Key personnel shall be permanent employees of the prime firm/team rather than temporary contract hire employee arrangements. Failure to provide a balanced workforce in the disciplines listed could result in the firm being considered not qualified. The combination of criteria below will be used to determine the ability of the staff to contribute to the successful completion of project task orders. Firms with greater breadth of in-house expertise will be rated higher than those needing to hire sub-consultants. The A/E shall demonstrate they are able to sign and stamp each drawing by individuals licensed in any state in the United States in the following disciplines: Architectural Design Civil Engineer Structural Engineer** Engineering I.T. Infrastructure Mechanical Engineer Fire Protection Engineer* Electrical Engineer Landscape Design Geographical Engineer Cost Estimator Commissioning Agent Fire/Life Safety Surveyor *For the Fire Protection Engineer (FPE) - licensed professional for purposes of this evaluation factor shall mean a registered professional engineer (P.E.) who has passed the fire protection engineering written examination administered by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveys (NCEES). Proof of passing the examination and (4 years) required experience shall be submitted with the proposal or it will be assumed the FPE does not meet these qualifications. **For the Structural Engineer - licensed professional for purposes of this evaluation factor shall mean a registered professional engineer (P.E.) who has passed the 16-hour P.E. structural written examination administered by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveys (NCEES). Proof of passing the examination and (4 years) required experience shall be submitted with the proposal or it will be assumed the Structural Engineer does not meet these qualifications. In addition, the offeror s team shall include staff members in the following disciplines and shall demonstrate their qualification: Project/Program Manager Environmental Engineer Construction Management Quality Control Manager Security Specialist/Engineer Interior Designer B. Specialized experience and technical competence: SF-330, Part I, Section F. Region 3 NCO 23 will consider any information which may be pertinent to this criterion, including the following: specialized experience and technical competence in the performance of services similar to those anticipated under this contract in terms of recent and relevant experience with regard to the project examples described below, as well as demonstrated experience with VA facility design. The evaluation board will be placing emphasis on the following items when evaluating this factor: experience with designing building renovations (more specifically for hospitals and office spaces) including building envelope, architectural, structural, civil, mechanical (HVAC and plumbing), electrical, life safety upgrades, fire suppression systems and associated alarms systems and utility systems; I.T. Infrastructure; LEED or High Performance and Sustainable Building Requirements experience; experience in surveying existing facilities and sites for hazardous materials and contamination, and design including remediation of such hazards as necessary to complete the work of the project. Experience in design of projects that include the above elements and whose design fees were $180,000 or higher will be considered very advantageous. Example Projects: Submit example design projects in narrative format that highlight the experience factors listed above. Design project examples should not exceed two pages each. All experience factors do not have to be included in a single project. The offeror may submit multiple projects to demonstrate experience in all relevant types of work, however, do not submit more than five projects total. For submittal purposes, if a completed ID/IQ task order is submitted, the completed task order would be considered a project . Do not list an ID/IQ contract as an example of a completed project . Instead, list the relevant completed task order(s) or single/stand-alone contract. a) The narratives of example projects should show contract number, issuing agency, project name, a current point of contact including telephone and email information, project scope, size, location, design fees, the total number of modifications / change orders issued during performance of project, date of project completion, estimate of construction cost, principal design elements and features, complexity of the job, challenges faced, actions taken, and the resolution and results of any challenges faced. In addition, and if known, list the construction contract award price, and the total number of construction contract modifications/change orders and their total value. b) Submissions shall include details on items including but not limited to: (1) Experience with design of similar types/sizes of facilities; (2) Experience with multi-phased hospital design and construction programs; (3) Experience with Long Term Care and/or Community Living Centers. (4) Experience with infection control during construction; (5) Experience with commissioning; (6) Experience in performing Quality Control processes that result in high-quality, coordinated, and complete documents in accordance with PG-18-15 A/E Submission Instructions for Minor and NRM Construction Program c) Examples of work submitted that do not meet the requirements specified here will not be evaluated. Failure to provide requested data, accessible points of contact or valid phone numbers could result in a firm being considered less qualified and eliminated from further consideration. Identify any key personnel in SF-330, Part I, Section G that worked on the projects and their role. Specialized experience and technical competency will be evaluated for ability to support the range of work required for this contract, as demonstrated by firm s submitted projects. C. Capacity: SF-330, Part I, Block H. Demonstrate how the firm(s) will manage, coordinate, and administer the work within the prime and among any teaming partners. Teaming partners to be included by the prime firm in their response should be clearly identified as such for evaluation purposes and will later be agreed to during negotiations of any resultant contract. SF-330, Part II, Block 11 will also be evaluated to assist in determining this factor. SF-330 Part I Blocks C, D, F and SF-330, Part II will also be evaluated to support this criterion. NCO 23 will consider any information which may be pertinent to this criterion, including the following: Capacity to perform work in-house and with teaming members. Demonstrate active on-going Federal and Non-Federal work (Address current dollar value of work, number of current projects, management approach to your on-going work, and how the team will support the work requirements outlined in this synopsis in addition to current work). Quantify the A-E teams reserve capacity (percent of available capacity or man hours available or number of man hours available). Greater weight will be given to offerors who provide quantitative data to support an assertion of sufficient work-load capacity. D. Experience in construction period services: SF-330, Part I, Block H. In a two-page narrative, provide supporting information on the firms 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. Demonstrate how the firm(s) will manage, coordinate, and administer these services. Provide information on technology to be used during field inspections. Provide any additional pertinent information relevant to these criteria. Greater weight will be given to offerors who provide examples of completed projects where they ve successfully completed these services in the past 18-months. E. Past performance: SF-330, Block H. For the example projects provided under Specialized Experience and Technical Competence, in a single page narrative form provide past performance in terms of cost control, quality of work, and compliance with performance schedules for each example project submitted under Specialized Experience and Technical Competence. In addition to past performance information provided, the evaluation will include information available within the VA, Federal, state, private industry or other sources. F. Geographic Proximity: Geographic proximity to the general area of the requiring activity as well as knowledge of the St. Cloud, Minnesota area. SF-330, Part I, Block H. In single page narrative form demonstrate firm s familiarity with local conditions to include knowledge of, and experience dealing with, the regulatory agencies, geological features, logistics, costs, climatic conditions and local design and construction methods. Narrative shall include team location, including main offices, branch offices, and any subconsultant offices. The narrative shall demonstrate how inclusion in the pool will be advantageous to the Government. Offerors must affirm they are able to practice at all stations listed for this contract. An offeror who resides in VISN 23 may result in a higher evaluation rating. G. Subcontracting Efforts: Commitment to VHA shall be detailed in SF-330, Part I, Block H. Offerors shall 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. STAGE TWO (2): After receipt and review of the qualifications, NCO 23 will hold interviews based on the results of the evaluations (Stage One (1)). At least three (3) of the most technically rated firms shall be short-listed and move to Stage Two (2) interviews. Award shall be made to the firm that rates highest in the interview. Post-award debriefs will be conducted. Debriefings of successful and unsuccessful firms will be held after final selection has taken place and will be conducted, to the extent practicable, in accordance with FAR 15.503, 15.506(b) through (f), and 15.507(c). Note that 15.506(d)(2) through (d)(5) does not apply to A-E contracts. JOINT VENTURES: All qualifications packages submitted by joint ventures must include a copy of an executed joint venture agreement (with original signatures) which fully discloses the legal identity of each member of the joint venture, the relationship between the members, the form of ownership of each member, and any limitations on liability or authority for each member. An authorized representative of each member of the joint venture must sign the contract accompanying an offer regardless of any agency relationship established between the members. In the case of corporations that are joint venture members, the corporation secretary must certify that the corporation is authorized to participate in the joint venture, either by certifying in the joint venture agreement, or by submitting a separate certification to the Government. The joint venture must also provide a certificate that identifies a principal representative of the joint venture with full authority to bind the joint venture. Representations, certifications, and financial information must be submitted for each member of the joint venture.