LT4-5, LLC (36C26322R0096)

B-421243,B-421243.2,B-421243.3 Jan 12, 2023 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights LT4-5, LLC, of Omaha, Nebraska, protests the award of a lease to Epic Consulting, LLC (Epic), of Washington, DC, under request for lease proposals (RLP) No. 36C26322R0096, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the provision of clinical space in the Papillion, Nebraska area. The protester contends that the agency should not have awarded the lease to Epic because its proposal was technically unacceptable. 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: LT4-5, LLC File: B-421243; B-421243.2; B-421243.3 Date: January 12, 2023 George E. Stewart, Esq., Brian P. Waagner, Esq., and Steven A. Neeley, Esq., Husch Blackwell LLP, for the protester. Hadeel Masseoud, Esq., and Diana Parks, Esq., Curran Legal Services Group, Inc., for Epic Consulting, LLC, the intervenor. Natica Chapman Neely, Esq., Department of Veterans Affairs, for the agency. Michelle E. Litteken, Esq., and Christina Sklarew, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest is dismissed when the record shows that the protester is not an interested party to maintain its protest arguing that the awardee’s proposal should have been rejected as technically unacceptable. DECISION LT4-5, LLC, of Omaha, Nebraska, protests the award of a lease to Epic Consulting, LLC (Epic), of Washington, DC, under request for lease proposals (RLP) No. 36C26322R0096, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the provision of clinical space in the Papillion, Nebraska area. The protester contends that the agency should not have awarded the lease to Epic because its proposal was technically unacceptable. We deny the protest in part and dismiss it in part. BACKGROUND The RLP, issued on July 13, 2022, as a service-disabled veteran-owned small business set-aside, provided for the award of a 20-year lease for new or existing contiguous clinical space with between 24,000 and 24,439 American National Standards Institute/Building Owners and Managers Association Office Area square feet (ABOA SF)[1] of in the Papillion, Nebraska area. Memorandum of Law (MOL) at 1-2; Agency Report (AR), Exh. 1, RLP at 4.[2] The RLP informed offerors that the lease would be issued to the offeror that submitted the lowest-priced, technically acceptable (LPTA) lease proposal. RLP at 19. As relevant here, the RLP description of the amount and type of space required stated that the agency required 140 surface/outside parking spaces. RLP at 4. Additionally, the RLP established that the agency would not award a lease for any property within a 100-year floodplain unless there was no practicable alternative. Id. at 9. The RLP continued: “a Lease will not be awarded for any offered [p]roperty adjacent to 100-year floodplain, where such an adjacency would, as determined by the [g]overnment, restrict ingress or egress to the [p]remises in the event of a flood, unless there is no practicable alternative.” Id. The VA received six timely proposals. MOL at 2. After conducting discussions, the VA’s technical evaluation board (TEB) reviewed the proposals for technical acceptability and found five of the proposals were technically acceptable.[3] Id.; AR, Exh. 2, Price Negotiation Memorandum at 11. The VA then conducted a present-value price evaluation and concluded that Epic’s proposal offered the lowest price. MOL at 3. The VA awarded the lease to Epic on September 28, 2022. Id. After receiving notification of award, LT4-5 filed a timely agency-level protest, arguing that the property proposed by Epic could not accommodate 140 parking spaces. MOL at 3-4; AR, Exh. 15, Agency-Level Protest. The VA denied the protest, finding the question of whether Epic’s proposal complied with the parking space requirement was a matter of contract administration. MOL at 4; AR, Exh. 16, Agency-Level Protest Decision. This protest followed. Before filing its agency report, the VA filed a request for dismissal, arguing that LT4-5 is not an interested party. Req. for Dismissal at 1. Specifically, the agency asserted that the RLP provided for award on an LPTA basis, and there were three technically acceptable, lower-priced intervening offers that the protester had not challenged. Id. at 6. LT4-5 subsequently filed a supplemental protest, challenging the VA’s acceptability determinations for each of the intervening offers.[4] See Supp. Protest at 4-9. Our Office reviewed the supplemental protest, and we declined to dismiss the protest at that time. DISCUSSION The VA renews its request that we dismiss the protest because LT4-5 is not an interested party to challenge the award to Epic.