C-III Asset Management, LLC

B-414498 Jun 27, 2017 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights C-III Asset Management, LLC, of Irving, Texas, protests the terms of request for lease proposals (RLP) No. 5VA0532, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA), Public Building Service, to lease office space for a federal tenant agency. The protester contends that the RLP's specifications unduly restrict competition. We deny the protest in part and dismiss it in part. We deny the protest in part and dismiss it in part. View Decision DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of:  C-III Asset Management, LLC File:  B-414498 Date:  June 27, 2017 Robert C. MacKichan, Jr., Esq., Mary Beth Bosco, Esq., and Gordon Griffin, Esq., Holland & Knight, LLP, for the protester. Mikhail S. Petersen, Esq., General Services Administration, for the agency. Gabriel D. Soll, Esq., and Christina Sklarew, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest that solicitation for leased office space unduly restricts competition is denied where the agency demonstrates a reasonable basis for column spacing requirement. DECISION C-III Asset Management, LLC, of Irving, Texas, protests the terms of request for lease proposals (RLP) No. 5VA0532, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA), Public Building Service, to lease office space for a federal tenant agency.  The protester contends that the RLP’s specifications unduly restrict competition. We deny the protest in part and dismiss it in part. BACKGROUND GSA is conducting this procurement on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Office of Information Technology (CBP-OIT).  The aim of the procurement is to provide leased office space for CBP-OIT personnel, currently located in 11 separate buildings throughout Northern Virginia under 12 leases, and to consolidate these requirements under a single lease for space in one building.  Contracting Officer’s Statement of Facts (COS), at 1-2.  The current set of leases expire in December 2020.  Id. at 1. As part of this consolidation effort, CBP sought to reduce its current total office space usage from 629,680 square feet to a maximum of 526,000 rentable square feet.  Id.  This initial reduction was reflected in a prospectus approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.  See Agency Report (AR), Tab 27, Prospectus PVA-01-WA17; see also AR, Tab 47, U.S. House of Representatives Committee Resolution.  However, following this, CBP decided to implement a mobile workspace approach, allowing it to further reduce the total space needed to 501,000 rentable square feet--a 20 percent reduction from its current usage.  COS at 1.  GSA and CBP discussed the tenant agency’s needs throughout 2016.  The process began when CBP submitted its responses to an initial “customer needs assessment” questionnaire from GSA.  See AR, Tab 9, Customer Needs Assessment Questionnaire.  This initial survey indicated that the agency intended to host approximately 3,600 employees, would require some 24/7 operations, and, in addition to typical office space features, would require the flexibility to include various laboratories and account for a changing mission over the intended 15-year term of the lease.  Id. at 11, 14.  CBP-OIT worked with GSA and a lease-services broker under contract to GSA to review and revise its requirements to create a lease solicitation that would both meet the agency’s needs and not exceed the market’s capabilities.  COS at 2.  CBP-OIT, as the tenant agency, requested that any internal columns of a leased building be spaced no closer than 25 feet apart on center.[1] Id. at 3-4.  The tenant agency noted to GSA that, along with reducing the rentable square footage, it would increase the number of personnel using the space during the course of the lease.  Id.