BOF GA Lenox Park, LLC (0GA2209)

B-421522 Jun 20, 2023 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights BOF GA Lenox Park, LLC, of Brookhaven, Georgia, protests the award of a lease to FDS Vegas LLC, of Arlington, Virginia, under request for lease proposals (RLP) No. 0GA2209, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) on behalf of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), for the provision of commercial office space in the Atlanta, Georgia area. The protester contends that the agency improperly found FDS Vegas's proposal technically acceptable. We sustain the protest. 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: BOF GA Lenox Park, LLC File: B-421522 Date: June 20, 2023 Gordon Griffin, Esq., Hillary J. Freund, Esq., and Richard Ariel, Esq., Holland & Knight LLP, for the protester. Seamus Curley, Esq., Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, for FDS Vegas LLC, the intervenor. Benjamin D. Lorber, Esq., General Services Administration, for the agency. Kasia Dourney, Esq., and Alexander O. Levine, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest that agency unreasonably evaluated awardee’s proposal as complying with the terms of the solicitation is sustained where the record shows that the agency failed to evaluate a requirement for proximity to rapid transit in accordance with a reasonable interpretation of the solicitation term at issue. DECISION BOF GA Lenox Park, LLC, of Brookhaven, Georgia, protests the award of a lease to FDS Vegas LLC, of Arlington, Virginia, under request for lease proposals (RLP) No. 0GA2209, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) on behalf of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), for the provision of commercial office space in the Atlanta, Georgia area. The protester contends that the agency improperly found FDS Vegas’s proposal technically acceptable. We sustain the protest. BACKGROUND The RLP, issued on May 23, 2022, provided for the award of a 20-year lease of office space in the Atlanta, Georgia area.[1] Agency Report (AR), Tab 3, RLP at 1. GSA sought to lease approximately 77,529 American National Standards Institute/Building Owners and Managers Associate Office Area square feet (ABOA SF)[2] of contiguous space and 326 parking spaces within a delineated area of Atlanta.[3] The solicitation advised that the lease would be awarded to the responsible offeror whose proposal “conforms to the requirements of this RLP and the [l]ease documents,” and is the lowest-priced, technically acceptable lease proposal. Id. at 20. As relevant here, the RLP included certain public transportation requirements. Specifically, the solicitation provided that: A subway, light rail, or bus rapid transit stop shall be located within the immediate vicinity of the Building, but generally not exceeding a safely accessible, walkable 5,280 feet from the principal functional entrance of the building, as determined by the LCO [lease contracting officer]. Id. at 3. Additionally, and of importance to this protest, the RLP advised that an offeror must provide its unique entity identifier, and that it: must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) . . . at http://www.sam.gov prior to the Lease Award Date. Offerors must be registered for purposes of “All Awards,” including completion of all required representations and certifications within SAM. Id. at 16. GSA twice received questions from potential offerors regarding the solicitation but none of the questions sought clarification of the transit accessibility requirement, or the definition of the term bus rapid transit. AR, Tab 5.1, Questions & Answers 1; AR, Tab 5.2, Questions & Answers 2. The agency received four timely proposals. Contracting Officer’s Statement (COS) at 3. The protester’s initial proposal did not include a unique entity identifier or a proof of an active SAM registration. Id. at 5. After commencing discussions with the offerors, GSA instructed Lenox Park to provide the missing information, i.e., a unique entity identifier, and to register its company on sam.gov. Id. The protester obtained a unique entity identifier and submitted it with its first revised proposal. Id. After three rounds of discussions with the agency, and despite having been instructed by the agency each time to submit proof of an active SAM registration, Lenox Park’s revised final proposal failed to include one. Id. Instead, the protester indicated that its SAM registration was pending. Id. After the receipt of final proposals, the agency calculated the present value of Lenox Park’s proposed lease rate as $31.61 per ABOA SF, or slightly more than the present value of FDS Vegas’s lease rate of $31.16 per ABOA SF. AR, Tab 12, Price Negotiation Memorandum at 7, 12.