USDA PIF FY26 SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE.pdf

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE

FOR

W912PM26BA012

USDA / NC State University, Plant Improvement Facility (PIF)

Southwest Raleigh, North Carolina

This is a Sources Sought/Request for Information only. This is NOT a Solicitation Announcement, nor is it a Request for Proposal. This request does not obligate the Government in any contract award.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District, is conducting research to determine the market capabilities of potential contractors to construct a Plant Improvement Facility (PIF).

The scope of this project is to Construct a new laboratory/office/seed processing building and Headhouse/Greenhouse facilities to support several of the field-focused research programs. This project will be developed on property leased by the USDA ARS on the grounds of the NCSU campus. The site is estimated at 12.5 acres. Site improvements include parking lot, roads, utilities to within 5' of buildings. Laboratory, office, seed processing building is 45,000 square feet. Greenhouses and headhouses are 6,500 square feet total for two facilities.

Optional Equipment storage and shop building are 6,000 square feet.

The research and processing structure is to be pre-engineered metal building construction with steel frame and box corrugated metal cladding over insulated girts and perlins. Standing seam metal panel will be the dominant roof material. The support spaces – well house, headhouse, and pump house – will be CMU construction with a CMU veneer and a low slope PVC roof. The building massing reflects the agrarian context of Lake Wheeler Road’s research, university, and private residential buildings. The program is deliberately organized to group related functions for efficient process flow and provide office separation from noisier processing areas. The processing areas are designed to allow the plant material to flow from the dirtier delivery eastern side toward the clean processing rooms on the west. The organization of the massing also helps visually screen views of site activities from Lake Wheeler Road and Inwood Road. The main building will be a single story with processing program and office/research spaces organized in wings corresponding to their respective crop. Entry for guests, personnel and research staff will be at the personnel hub in the shortest wing accessed from the parking area to the east. Loading for seed processing areas will be on the eastern end of their respective wings. HVAC, Telecom, Plumbing and Fire Protection systems will run overhead through the breezeway plenum and connect to the wings they service, routed through the roof space of each wing. The headhouse will include a grow room; and an evaporative cooled greenhouse divided into three compartments will be located to the south of the headhouse connected with a covered breezeway.

In accordance with DFARS 236.204(i) the magnitude of construction for this project will be between $25,000,000.00 and $35,000,000.00.

All interested firms with 236220 as an approved NAICs code have until 29 May 2026 to submit the following information:

- Name & Address of your Firm

- Point of Contact (Name/Phone/E-mail)

- Current SAM

- Business Size, to include designation as HUBZone, 8(a), Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, Woman-Owned Business, and Large Business. [If an 8(a) Small Business, your firm must have an office in Region IV (GA, AL, NC, VA, TN, MS, FL, KY, SC)]. Any supporting documentation that confirms your socio-economic status should be provided, e.g., letter of certification from VA confirming SDVOSB status. The Government must be able to verify SBA certification of HubZone and 8(a) via SAM.

- Bonding capability - both single and aggregate capacity contracts or for multiple task orders, as evidenced by submission of Surety Company Letter stating bonding capacity.

- Evidence of capabilities to perform comparable work (i.e., complex construction projects) of similar size, scope and complexity on three (3) recent projects equal to or greater than $18,000,000.00 in value (not more than six (6) years old) and minimum of 30,000 square feet. All project examples submitted must be as the prime contractor, Joint Venture or Mentor Protégé. Include the project name and description of the key/salient features of the project (i.e., square footage, multi-story, phased renovation, etc.), completion date, total contract construction value, whether it was Design-Build, Construction only, Renovation or Rehabilitation, etc. Additionally, if you were teaming with another firm, clearly identify your role on the project(s) submitted. Please provide at least one point of contact (with e-mail address and phone number) for project validation. The Government will not give credit to projects if the lack of information hinders the ability to determine relevancy and/or level or experience.

- Firm's capability to perform, to include geographic span and project size. Include firm's in-house capability to execute design and construction or established relationship with a design firm to perform Design-Bid-Build. If firm has personnel with active security clearances, please provide employee name, level of clearance, and expiration date of clearance.

- Information on Teaming Arrangement (if applicable). Although we are not looking for formal signed agreements at this time, if you intend to "team" with another firm, formally or informally, you must submit information, not more than one (1) page, about your team's involvement. More specifically, you must submit sufficient information for the Government to determine the roles each team member will play and what your socio-economic status is or will be considering the proposed arrangement. Therefore, included in your one (1) page if you are a Small Business and you intend to mentor/protégé and/or JV with a large business both team members must sign agreeing that 40% of the labor will be performed by the protégé firm. Additionally, if the team is a mentor/protégé arrangement, identify the areas that will be mentored. If the offeror is a Joint Venture (J-V), relevant project experience should be submitted for projects completed by the Joint Venture entity, or the individual firms that make up the joint venture. Offerors that are part of the DoD Mentor Protégé program may submit two (2) recent and relevant projects completed by the Mentor with the remaining project being submitted on behalf of the protégé. Any supporting documentation that confirms your socio-economic status as a team should be provided.

The Government may not give credit to your socio-economic class if there is not sufficient documentation to support it or if the Government cannot verify through other means that your business is as such.

The requested information shall be submitted electronically to:

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Attn: Karri Mares Email: karri.l.mares@usace.army.mil and

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Attn: Jason S. Smith E-mail: jason.s.smith2@usace.army.mil

The email should be entitled: USDA / NC State, Plant Improvement Facility (PIF)

Do not send hard copies of advertising or promotional materials. Please ensure that all responses are comprehensive and provide a name and point-of-contact for your firm for follow-up by this office or the procuring contracting officer. If you have responded to any previous e-mail messages or had other communications with our office regarding preliminary market research for this project, please be advised that it will be necessary for you to respond to this e-mail and the questions contained therein. Any responses involving teaming agreements should delineate between the work that will be accomplished by the Prime Contractor and work accomplished by the teaming partner

All information is to be provided on a voluntary basis at no charge to the Government. There is no entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs related to or arising out of responding to this request for information. All information provided becomes property of the Government. There is no guarantee, expressed or implied, that the market research for this acquisition will result in any guarantee of award or acquisition strategy.