Inactive

Description The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Asset Enterprise Management (OAEM), uses the Space and Equipment Planning System (SEPS) program to develop a major lease project s initial... Description The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Asset Enterprise Management (OAEM), uses the Space and Equipment Planning System (SEPS) program to develop a major lease project s initial Program for Design (PFD). The program starts with user inputs for the need into the SEPS software and SEPS then determines the Net Square Feet (NSF) of each room and defined space for the project as a whole. To account for internal departmental/demising/service walls and circulation and columns and projections enclosing the structural elements of the building within the space, a grossing factor (1.5 for Outpatient Clinics) is multiplied to a department s total NSF to determine the Departmental Gross Square Feet (DGSF). SEPS then applies a grossing factor of 1.35 to the DGSF to calculate the conceptual Building s Gross Square Feet (BGSF), which accounts for all enclosed space as measured from the exterior face of the building walls. The BGSF is utilized to quantify/manage VA owned construction procurement and life cycle costs. Minor leases may use SEPS or local space planning tools/practices. Historically on lease procurements, VA had equated DGSF to net usable square feet (NUSF) and procured its leased space in NUSF. As defined, NUSF does not contain the interdepartmental corridors that industry would normally consider part of a tenant s usable space so any comparison between VA NUSF rates and industry s usable square feet (USF) measurements are not aligned. Recently, VA adopted the General Services Administration s Request for Lease Proposals and Lease contract documents. As a result, VA now solicits for a minimum and a maximum amount of space as quantified in ANSI/BOMA Z65.1-1996 standard for Office Area (ABOA), which details a standard method for defining and measuring leased space but has not incorporated this calculation into the SEPS program. VA pays for leased space in rentable square feet (RSF), which is determined by the building owner and includes a share of building support and common areas such as elevator lobbies, building corridors, and floor service areas. In March 2022, VA updated its space planning criteria for Community Based Outpatient Clinics and, as a result, needs several test fits completed to ensure that the grossing factors for the new guidelines are consistent with the legacy projects. This update included revisions to multiple NSF room sizes across various departments as well as a significant change in how NSF is assigned to the Lobby functional area. These changes could have significant impacts on the grossing factors utilized for future projects and so test fits under the new guidelines, combined with an analysis of the square footage types will be helpful to understand the practical effects of the new NSF requirements. The information resulting from this effort will help VA validate and update its grossing factors in SEPS and will support the transition to ABOA and RSF from NUSF. This is a new requirement and will be competed as a total SDVOSB set-aside to be awarded as a stand-alone fixed price contract. The purpose of this Pre-Solicitation Notice is to serve as a request for information for providing feedback from interested SDVOSB vendors as to the soundness of the approach described in the attached Performance Work Statement (PWS) and 3 Appendices. Are there recognized shortcoming with the described approach? If so, how could it this project be improved? Once this project has been finalized, a Combined/Synopsis Solicitation will be posted and award is expected to be made in FY2023. At this time, no solicitation exists; therefore, please DO NOT REQUEST A COPY OF THE SOLICITATION. If a solicitation is released it will be synopsized in FedBizOpps at https://www.fbo.gov. It is the potential offeror's responsibility to monitor this site for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. Point of Contact All input and questions regarding this Pre-Solicitation Notice should be forwarded in writing via e-mail to the Contract Specialist, Steve Mock at steven.mock@va.gov.