Brown Developments, LLC (9ME2126)

B-419279.2 Apr 07, 2021 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Brown Developments, LLC, a small business located in Houlton, Maine, requests that our Office recommend that the General Services Administration (GSA) pay the firm the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protest. Brown's protest challenged the award of a lease to Terrance Beals pursuant to request for lease proposals (RLP) No. 9ME2126, issued by GSA for garage and office space within Houlton, Maine, for use by the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). In addition, the protester requests that we recommend the agency pay proposal preparation costs. We dismissed the underlying protest as academic after GSA stated that it would take corrective action in response to the protest by reevaluating the award decision and making a new source selection decision. We deny the request. 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:  Brown Developments, LLC--Costs File:  B-419279.2 Date:  April 7, 2021 Sigmund D. Schutz, Esq., and Sara N. Moppin, Esq., Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau & Pachios, LLP, for the protester. Eric N. Weber, Esq., and Nancy O’Connell, Esq., General Services Administration, for the agency. Alexander O. Levine, Esq., and Jennifer D. Westfall-McGrail, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Reimbursement of protest and proposal preparation costs is not recommended where underlying protest was not clearly meritorious, and thus the agency’s corrective action was not unduly delayed. DECISION   Brown Developments, LLC, a small business located in Houlton, Maine, requests that our Office recommend that the General Services Administration (GSA) pay the firm the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protest.  Brown’s protest challenged the award of a lease to Terrance Beals pursuant to request for lease proposals (RLP) No. 9ME2126, issued by GSA for garage and office space within Houlton, Maine, for use by the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).  In addition, the protester requests that we recommend the agency pay proposal preparation costs.  We dismissed the underlying protest as academic after GSA stated that it would take corrective action in response to the protest by reevaluating the award decision and making a new source selection decision. We deny the request. BACKGROUND On October 21, 2019, GSA posted a request for interest on the Federal Business Opportunities website regarding a lease requirement for CBP for garage and office space in Houlton, Maine.  Agency Resp. at 2.  The agency determined that two responding parties, Beals and Brown, had properties capable of meeting the requirement.  Id.  On January 21, 2020, the agency provided both offerors with a copy of the RLP.  Id.  The RLP included requirements for office and related space, warehouse storage, parking spaces, and specialized shop space for the storage of lumber, metal, building supplies, all-terrain vehicles, and snowmobiles.  Id. at 3. Both offerors submitted proposals in response to the RLP with Beals proposing to use a 0.73 acre property located within the confines of the Houlton International Airport in Houlton, Maine. On March 18, 2020, GSA sent Beals a letter stating that the agency could not enter into a lease with Beals due to a restrictive covenant in Beals’s deed that states “[u]se of this property shall be restricted to aviation and aviation related purposes only.”  Brown Resp., ex. 3, Mar. 18, 2020 Email at 1.  On March 19, Beals responded to this letter by providing a notarized letter from the town manager for the Town of Houlton, which stated that: The Town of Houlton will not consider the lease between Terrance E. Beals and General Services Administration pursuant to Solicitation 9 ME 2126 to be a violation of any deed restriction set forth in the deed from the Town of Houlton to Terrance E. Beals dated November 3, 2010 and recorded in the Southern Aroostook Registry of Deed in Vol. 4881, Page 322 for which the Town would undertake any enforcement actions. Brown Resp., ex. 8, Town Manager Letter at 1.  On September 8, the agency responded by letter to the town manager, stating that GSA’s legal counsel looked at the town charter but “was unable to find in the [c]harter the express authority to allow for this approval without a motion to and a vote in favor of a resolution by the Town Council for this to be issued.”  Brown Resp., ex.