440 East 62nd Street Company, B-276058.2, December 11, 1997

B-276058.2 Dec 11, 1997 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Higher-priced proposal was unobjectionable. Where solicitation stated that price and technical factors were of equal weight and agency determined that superior technical merits of successful offer justified higher price. Pennsylvania. 440 East principally contends that the evaluation of offers and the selection decision by the agency were seriously flawed. That its offer should have been selected for award. The SFO stated that award of the lease would be made to the offeror whose offer was most advantageous to the government. The SFO provided that price was equal to the combination of the following factors listed in descending order of importance: (1) proximity to public transportation. View Decision Matter of: 440 East 62nd Street Company File: B-276058.2 Date: December 11, 1997 * Redacted Decision DIGEST Attorneys DECISION 440 East 62nd Street Company protests the award of a lease to Arch 1650 Partners, L.P. under solicitation for offers (SFO) No. MPA95000, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) for office space in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 440 East principally contends that the evaluation of offers and the selection decision by the agency were seriously flawed, and that its offer should have been selected for award. We deny the protest. As amended, the SFO requested offers to enter into an initial lease term of 10 years, with 2 consecutive renewal options of 5 years each, for 265,000 occupiable square feet (o.s.f.) of office space for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The SFO specified that the space "must be located in a prime commercial office district with attractive, prestigious, professional surroundings with a prevalence of modern design and/or tasteful rehabilitation." The SFO required parking spaces within the building or within two city blocks for only two government vehicles, as well as visitor parking at reasonable rates, also within two city blocks. The SFO additionally required that a variety of inexpensive fast food establishments and/or restaurants be located within two blocks and that other services benefiting EPA employees such as retail shops, cleaners, and banks be located within three blocks. The SFO stated that award of the lease would be made to the offeror whose offer was most advantageous to the government, price and other factors considered. The SFO provided that price was equal to the combination of the following factors listed in descending order of importance: (1) proximity to public transportation; [1] (2) space layout efficiency; [2[ (3) past performance (including technical comprehension of requirements, construction plan, implementation schedule/sequencing, and experience with projects of comparable size and complexity); and (4) ability to provide a quality workplace/building/location (including consideration of, among other things, the building's quality, appearance, and systems efficiency, as well as the surrounding locale). The SFO also contained a "Historic Preference Clause," which provided for a 10-percent price evaluation preference for buildings listed in the National Register of Historic Places, but only if the "offer for space meets the terms and conditions of [the SFO] as well as any other offer received." Finally, occupancy was required within 360 calendar days from the successful offeror's receipt of "design intents" from GSA following execution of the lease. Five offers were received, three of which, including 440 East's and Arch 1650's, were included in the competitive range. Following extensive discussions, GSA requested and received best and final offers (BAFO). The agency evaluated BAFOs with the following technical and price results: [3] Offeror Overall Technical Score Price Operating Costs (Present value per o.s.f.) Arch 1650 5.00 [Deleted] [Deleted] Offeror A 3.13 [Deleted] [Deleted] 440 East 1.60 [Deleted] [Deleted] Briefly, concerning 440 East's building, the agency evaluators found that its location was in an area that "has historically housed light-industrial, manufacturing, production oriented companies [and that] the only other large and prominent tenant in [the area] is the [Philadelphia] Inquirer Building across the street, which has large elements of quasi-industrial, shipping, receiving, storage type functions." The evaluators concluded that 440 East's building was in a location that "cannot be considered a prime commercial office district." (Emphasis in original.) The evaluators also found that the 440 East building has direct access to only two of the four major public transportation systems, lacks amenities, and had an excessively large floor plate which would make the space inefficient for EPA's intended use. In contrast, the agency found that Arch 1650's offer met or exceeded agency expectations regarding all award factors.