ITB 26-701 Kitchen Equipment Maintenance and Repair Services

DeKalb County School District (DCSD), a metropolitan Atlanta public school system serving approximately 93,000 students across 139 schools and centers, issued Invitation to Bid (ITB) 26-701 seeking qualified vendors to provide comprehensive commercial kitchen equipment maintenance and repair services throughout all DCSD facilities. The scope of work encompasses on-call and emergency repair, equipment installation, stainless steel fabrication, equipment relocation, and equipment sourcing and purchasing for covered equipment categories spanning cooking equipment, dishwashing and sanitation systems, refrigeration units, and food service lines. Qualified bidders must demonstrate a minimum of five years of professional experience with commercial food service equipment, maintain EPA refrigerant handling certification and OEM factory training, provide emergency response capability within four hours of request, and possess the ability to source equipment directly from manufacturers or authorized distributors. Bidders are required to submit unit pricing for labor (standard and emergency hours), installation services, stainless steel fabrication, equipment installation labor, and vendor markup percentages on equipment purchases and miscellaneous parts, with all pricing structured as F.O.B. Destination with freight prepaid and including all associated costs. Mandatory submissions include audited financial statements for 2022-2023, valid business licenses, certificates of insurance with minimum limits of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 annual aggregate, and three client references, along with completion of all required attachment forms including suspension and debarment certification, conflict of interest disclosure, and non-collusion certification. An optional virtual pre-bid conference was scheduled for July 24, 2025, at 11:00 AM EST via Microsoft Teams, with the deadline to submit questions set for July 31, 2025, at 4:30 PM EST and answers posted by August 7, 2025; bids were required to be submitted electronically via IonWave no later than 2:00 PM EST on August 14, 2025, with a virtual public bid opening scheduled for 3:00 PM EST the same day.

The Invitation to Bid did not specify set-aside designations or restrictions limiting eligibility to particular types of organizations, including disadvantaged enterprises, suggesting the procurement was open to all qualified vendors meeting the stated professional and technical requirements. The contract was ultimately awarded to two vendors: HVAC Allies, LLC and EEC Acquisition LLC dba Smart Care Equipment Solutions, with a combined not-to-exceed value of $1,000,000. The initial contract term runs from November 2025 through June 30, 2026, with four optional one-year renewal periods contingent on DCSD's offer, vendor acceptance, and Board of Education approval. All work requires authorization via formal DCSD work order or purchase order with no add-on charges permitted, and no work will commence without written approval of insurance coverage from the DCSD Risk Manager. Final award was contingent upon DeKalb County Board of Education approval, which was confirmed with the Award Notification issued on October 6, 2025.