The Community Partnership LLC, B-286844, February 13, 2001

B-286844 Feb 13, 2001 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Protest that agency improperly excluded submission from the competitive range in a procurement to select a developer to improve military housing pursuant to the Military Housing Privatization Initiative is denied where the record shows the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the evaluation factors save for two challenged weaknesses. To improve housing more economically and more quickly than if only the traditional military construction approach were used. The Army's pilot program under this initiative is the Residential Communities Initiative. The developer is expected to upgrade existing housing and build new housing. The developer will be expected to assume ownership of Fort Meade's family housing units and will be provided a long-term interest in the underlying land. View Decision Matter of: The Community Partnership LLC File: B-286844 Date: February 13, 2001 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION The Community Partnership LLC (CP) protests the exclusion of its submission from the competitive range under request for qualifications (RFQ) No. DACA02-00-R-0002, issued by the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers, to select a developer to improve the military housing at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, pursuant to the Military Housing Privatization Initiative. CP primarily contends that the Army improperly evaluated its submission. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The Department of Defense (DOD) owns approximately 200,000 family housing units that require renovation or replacement. See Military Housing Privatization Web Site, >. To improve housing more economically and more quickly than if only the traditional military construction approach were used, in 1996 Congress enacted legislation authorizing a 5-year pilot program, the Military Housing Privatization Initiative, to allow private sector financing, ownership, operation, and maintenance of military housing. /1/ National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-06, Sec. 2801 et seq., 110 Stat. 186 et seq., codified at 10 U.S.C. Secs. 2871-2885 (Supp. IV 1998). In 1999, Congress expanded the definition of the types of entities eligible to participate in this program to include state or local governments and housing authorities of state or local governments. Pub. L. No. 106-65, Sec. 2803, 113 Stat. 848 (1999). The Army's pilot program under this initiative is the Residential Communities Initiative. The Army has assigned the procurement responsibility for each pilot installation, including Fort Meade, to the Corps of Engineers. The Corps issued this RFQ in May 2000 to select a developer to improve Fort Meade's military housing community. Over the course of this long-term project, the developer is expected to upgrade existing housing and build new housing; transform existing housing areas into planned and integrated residential communities; provide ancillary supporting facilities; maintain positive relations with surrounding communities; and provide for the effective long-term, high-quality management and operation of the family housing inventory and ancillary supporting facilities. The developer will be expected to assume ownership of Fort Meade's family housing units and will be provided a long-term interest in the underlying land. The developer's return on the project is expected to come from developing, operating, and managing these housing units, and its main source of revenue will be rents paid by service members from their housing allowances. The developer will be responsible for all costs of the project and may be allowed to construct, maintain, and/or manage ancillary supporting facilities with the agreement of the installation. RFQ Para. 1.1. The Fort Meade project will be organized in two phases. During Phase 1, Project Planning, the developer will work with the Army to craft a Community Development and Management Plan (CDMP) that sets forth the terms of the developer's long-term relationship with the Army. The developer will be paid a fixed fee of $350,000 at the completion of Phase I. During Phase 2, Project Implementation, the developer will implement the CDMP. This solicitation concerns only the Phase I procurement. Prospective developers were required to submit a two-part statement of qualifications. Part 1 was to contain information addressing the RFQ's minimum experience requirements, and Part 2 was to contain information addressing the RFQ's qualifications requirements. While the statement of qualifications was to contain sufficient detail to permit the agency to reach a reasoned judgment regarding the developer's minimum experience requirements and qualifications, submissions were limited to 50 single-spaced pages. /2/ RFQ Para. 4.1. An evaluation team (ET) was to evaluate the submissions in two stages.