2022-01-Rev-LimitedSourcesJustification_Broker Services_SFRO_OSO (CO Signed)_Redacted.pdf

LIMITED SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

Procurement of Short Term SEC San Francisco Regional Office Lease Extensions

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Pursuant to the authority cited herein, the following justification for limiting sources is approved.

1. The Agency and Contracting Activity is:

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Office of Acquisitions 100 F Street, NE Washington, DC 20549

2. Nature and Description of Action Being Approved.

This is a Justification and Approval for a limited sources acquisition of real estate leasing broker services for extension of an existing SEC lease at its San Francisco Regional Office (SFRO). The acquisition is being conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program, GSA Schedule Contract number GS-23F-0028W.

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the needs of the SEC and the estimated value.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires Broker Service representation to extend its current San Francisco Regional Office lease. SFRO is a leased facility located at 44 Montgomery Avenue, San Francisco, CA with a lease expiration of January 31, 2022.

The SEC and General Services Administration (GSA) are currently preparing for the SEC’s long-term SFRO space requirements following expiration of the current lease. As part of this process, the SEC will require a short-term lease extension of the SEC’s current SFRO lease. Per the Memorandum of Understanding between the GSA and the SEC, effective August 1, 2011, GSA will administer all new SEC leases on behalf of the SEC, while SEC remains responsible for any necessary extensions of the current leases.

The Broker will be responsible for negotiating fair market rental rates for the San Francisco Regional Office lease extensions. The lease extensions must be coordinated to align with GSA’s and SEC’s long term SFRO space requirements schedule.

The estimated value of the services to negotiate a 24-month firm term and a 12-month soft term lease extension is approximately $ . However, the final value of the contract remains to be negotiated, but will be within the requirements of the GSA Schedule Contract GS-23F-0028W. Please note that this is not the value of the actual lease extension, rather the cost of the Broker’s estimated Commission for negotiating a lease extension on behalf of the SEC.

4. The authority and supporting rationale and, if applicable, a demonstration of the proposed contractor's unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

The authority permitting limiting sources is FAR 8.405-6 (a)(1)(i)(B) “Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.” The identified source on the FSS schedule being used to acquire these lease extension services, Carpenter Robbins, has the task order from GSA for providing broker services in the long term SEC SFRO lease acquisition. See Broker Contract, GLS, Base Contract No. GS-00P-15-BQ-D-7016. As discussed in this Justification, in the interest of economy and efficiency, and to avoid conflicts of interest, the short-term lease extension broker services sought are a logical follow-on to the GSA contract to the broker for the long-term requirement.

For the new SEC SFRO lease procurement to proceed most efficiently and for competition to be maximized, the Government requires that the current lease expire at a time that coordinates with the commencement date(s) of a successor lease for the long-term SEC SFRO lease requirement being administered by GSA, and permits multiple locations to be considered to fulfill the requirement. SEC’s long-term requirement is based on a Program of Requirements (POR) developed in coordination with GSA.

Carpenter Robbins is the broker on the long term SEC SFRO lease procurement. For the following reasons, Carpenter Robbins is unique as the only source capable of providing the short-term lease extension broker services in coordination with the long-term SFRO leasing process:

Since GSA has already awarded the new long term SEC SFRO lease broker requirement to Carpenter Robbins, awarding the short-term lease extension to a different broker would adversely affect both requirements. The broker chosen represents the Government’s interests to the real estate market, and having two different brokers serve this role would change the dynamics and complexity of the relationships, and create risks for conflicts to arise, and market perceptions of the Government’s interests to be confused or misinterpreted, thus adding risk to the procurement. Thus there are benefits and risk avoidance available with using one broker that are not reasonably achievable with two brokers.

In consultation and coordination with GSA Region 9, Lease Contracting Officer, GSA concurs with SEC seeking Broker Representation from Carpenter Robbins, to achieve economies of scale and to assure coordination with GSA’s long-term SEC SFRO lease procurement, which will allow the Broker to negotiate the best short-term lease extension on behalf of the SEC.

One face to the market – Using the same broker for the short- and long-term lease requirements avoids putting two lease acquisition teams in front of the incumbent lessor and the potential lessors for the long-term requirement. While the lease extension is a large procurement, the new lease will be significantly larger and using Carpenter Robbins for the extension provides a logically structured procurement approach for all brokers and potential vendors in the larger requirement.

Avoidance of potential conflict between the short-term and long-term brokers.

Although the short-term extension and long-term procurement are separate actions, both will be ongoing at the same time. It is in the Government’s interests to ensure that the short-term lease extension strategy is coordinated with the larger long-term lease acquisition strategy. Using the same broker for both efforts enables the Government to coordinate its long-term lease acquisition with its short-term extension needs.

Procurement integrity – Having one broker for both procurements enables the Government to only share procurement information with one vendor, thus avoiding the need to provide a broker other than the long-term broker with procurement sensitive information to the follow-on lease procurement. In addition, use of a single broker reduces the potential that a broker on the short-term requirement who provided broker or other leasing services to an interested, potentially bidding party under the follow-on lease procurement would have organizational conflicts of interest that would have to be addressed.

Efficiency and Economy – only one broker needs to become familiar with the SEC’s space requirements rather than two, thus saving SEC staff effort and avoiding potentially conflicting broker views of SEC requirements being expressed to the market. GSA’s long-term SEC SFRO lease procurement is already underway, thus Carpenter Robbins is already familiar with SEC requirements. The lease extension requirement is already unique and the addition of a second broker unnecessarily adds to the complexity and could reduce the expense of replicating services.

As noted in paragraph 4, FAR 8.4 recognizes that the interest of economy and efficiency justifies new work (such as the short-term brokerage services) to a particular source if it is a logical follow-on to an original order. Here short-term broker services are a logical follow-on to long-term broker services.

5. A determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with 8.404(d).

The Contracting Officer’s signature on this limited sources justification indicates his/her determination that this order represents the best value to the Government consistent with 8.404(d).

6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Market research of GSA schedule contracts was conducted. Several brokers were identified under the GSA schedule, however only Carpenter Robbins had the long-term lease broker requirement contract.

7. Other facts supporting the justification.

The rationale supporting limiting sources is set forth in paragraph 4.

8. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

Another SEC SFRO leasing procurement is not anticipated until the long-term lease expires.

Appropriate procurement procedures for any broker services required by the SEC will be followed at that time.

9. The ordering activity contracting officer’s certification that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the contracting officer’s knowledge and belief.

The Contracting Officer’s signature on this limited sources justification indicates his/her certification that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the contracting officer’s knowledge and belief.

10. Evidence that any supporting data that is the responsibility of technical or requirements personnel (e.g., verifying the Government’s minimum needs or requirements or other rationale for limited sources) and which form a basis for the justification have been certified as complete and accurate by the technical or requirements personnel.

The technical and requirements person’s signature on this limited sources justification indicates her/his certification that the supporting data and facts and which form a basis for the justification are complete and accurate.