Progress for Bakersfield Veterans, LLC (36C10F19R0067)

B-418703.7,B-418703.8 Aug 11, 2021 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Progress for Bakersfield Veterans, LLC (PBV), of Beverly Hills, California, protests the award of a lease to SASD Development Group, LLC, of San Diego, California, under solicitation for offers (SFO) No. 36C10F19R0067, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the construction and lease of a community-based outpatient clinic in Bakersfield, California. PBV argues that the agency unreasonably failed to cancel or amend the solicitation in response to changed requirements, and that the agency improperly considered the awardee's lease and waived certain solicitation requirements. 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:  Progress for Bakersfield Veterans, LLC File:  B-418703.7; B-418703.8 Date:  August 11, 2021 Elizabeth Jochum, Esq., Zachary Prince, Esq., and Nora Brent, Esq., Smith Pachter McWhorter PLC, for the protester. Kristin Grotecloss, Esq., Kathryn Downey, Esq., Department of Veterans Affairs, for the agency. Mary G. Curcio, Esq., and John Sorrenti, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST  1. Protest that agency was required to amend or cancel solicitation due to changed requirements is denied where neither agency’s requirements, nor the terms and conditions of the solicitation, have changed. 2. Protest that agency improperly considered awardee’s proposed lease as an operating lease is dismissed as untimely where the basis of the protest is that the agency should have included certain items in the rent calculation, but the solicitation specifically provided that the items in question would not be included in the rent calculation. 3. Protest that agency waived requirement that property be free of use restrictions is dismissed as untimely since it was not filed within 10 days after protester knew or should have known the basis of protest. DECISION Progress for Bakersfield Veterans, LLC (PBV), of Beverly Hills, California, protests the award of a lease to SASD Development Group, LLC, of San Diego, California, under solicitation for offers (SFO) No. 36C10F19R0067, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the construction and lease of a community-based outpatient clinic in Bakersfield, California.  PBV argues that the agency unreasonably failed to cancel or amend the solicitation in response to changed requirements, and that the agency improperly considered the awardee’s lease and waived certain solicitation requirements.  We deny the protest in part and dismiss it in part. BACKGROUND The SFO was issued on December 9, 2019.  Agency Report (AR), Tab 1; Contracting Officer’s Statement (COS) at 1.  Offerors were required to submit a technical proposal and a price proposal.  Technical proposals were evaluated against four factors:  technical quality; qualifications and past performance; operations and maintenance plan; and socio-economic status.  AR, Tab 4, SFO at 34.  For price, offerors were to propose a rental rate per net usable square foot (NUSF).[1]  Id.  For evaluation purposes the agency calculated the present value of the rental rate.  Id. at 34-35.  In addition, to be eligible for award the lease had to meet the requirements of an operating lease as defined by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-11, App. B.  SFO at 25.  The agency evaluated three offers submitted by PBV (Westwind 1, Westwind 2, and [DELETED]), and one offer submitted by SASD.  Memorandum of Law (MOL) at 2.  The three offers submitted by PBV were eliminated from the competitive range.  Id. at 3.  PBV protested the elimination of its Westwind 1 and Westwind 2 offers to our Office on May 6, 2020.  COS at 2.  Following development of the record, the attorney assigned to the protest conducted alternative dispute resolution and informed the parties that GAO would likely sustain a number of the protester’s asserted grounds.  In response, the agency took corrective action, which rendered the protest academic.  Id.