The Great Lakes Towing Company LLC

The Great Lakes Towing Company LLC, doing business as Great Lakes Shipyard, operates as a prime contractor delivering vessel maintenance, drydock repair, towing, and maritime infrastructure services to federal civilian agencies, with 100% of awards structured as prime contracts and no subcontractor activity. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the company is a for-profit Subchapter S Corporation and small business manufacturer that competes predominantly under Total Small Business set-asides across a portfolio of 209 federal awards with combined potential value of $87.7 million.

Great Lakes Shipyard's customer base centers on the U.S. Coast Guard, which accounts for 86 awards ($47 million combined potential value) and represents 54% of the vendor's award portfolio by dollar volume. The Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey Office of Acquisitions and Grants ranks second with 24 awards ($8.5 million), followed by the Army Corps of Engineers' district offices (27 awards combined, $16.4 million). These five customer buckets account for 70% of awards and 92% of combined potential value, indicating pronounced concentration among coastal and water-resource agencies. The Coast Guard's dominance spans both small purchase orders and substantial contracts; the vendor holds a $26.3 million Indefinite Delivery Contract (awarded July 2025, running through July 2026) for drydock and repair services on 140-foot Coast Guard Cutter Inland Ice Breaker Tugs and 120-foot barges, from which multiple task orders have been issued.

Capability framing is concrete and narrowly focused. The vendor specializes in drydock repair, haulout, inspection, hull maintenance and painting, shaft and propeller servicing, engine installation and overhaul, emergency towing, vessel moorage and berthing, and tank cleaning and systems upgrades. Representative awards include a $2.7 million definitive contract (July 2024) from the Coast Guard for dry dock repairs to the USCGC Bristol Bay and a 120-foot ATON barge during FY24; a $1.5 million delivery order (May 2026) from the Coast Guard for drydock repairs to the CGC Neah Bay; a $732.9 thousand definitive contract (December 2021) from the USGS for haulout, maintenance, and repair of the research vessel STURGEON; and a $3.75 million definitive contract (June 2023) from the Coast Guard for dry-dock repair availability on the USCGC Mobile Bay and a 120-barge unit. Work is performed predominantly in Cleveland, Ohio (the company's home port), with secondary performance at Ann Arbor, Michigan (NOAA vessel work) and other Great Lakes locations. The company also received a $781,627 Project Grant from the Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration under the Assistance to Small Shipyards program (CFDA 20.814, July 2022 through July 2024) to fund capital equipment and infrastructure upgrades including material handling equipment, welding packages, blasting equipment, and machining tools — positioning it as a federally supported small shipyard rather than a pure service vendor.

Set-aside posture is uniform. The vendor competes almost exclusively under Total Small Business set-asides; of 209 awards, the vast majority carry that designation, with only a small number awarded full-and-open or without set-aside. This reflects the vendor's positioning and customer preference for small business maritime support.

Activity trajectory shows moderate volatility. The vendor recorded 8 awards in 2022, 5 in 2023, 7 in 2024, 8 in 2025, and 2 through August 2026 — a pattern consistent with the cyclical nature of vessel maintenance scheduling and federal maritime operations funding. Three awards (combined potential value $8.5 million) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing moderate recompete exposure. The first award in the source dataset dates to October 1986, indicating decades of established Coast Guard and federal maritime agency relationships.

Service Contract Inventory captures only nine reportable records above the $150,000 threshold across FY2022 through FY2025. SCI-reported invoicing totaled $6.2 million, concentrated in FY2023 ($5.1 million across 6.4 FTEs) and FY2024 ($1.2 million across 1.8 FTEs), with zero FY2022 and FY2025 SCI activity. On SCI-reportable prime contracts, median government-paid rates ran around $356/hr, with senior labor pricing extending through $442/hr and entry rates near $237/hr. The vendor reports zero sub-hours share across SCI prime records — all labor is direct. The SCI dataset represents only a narrow slice of the vendor's federal maritime work; the majority of revenue appears to flow through fixed-price purchase orders and indefinite delivery contracts below or outside SCI reporting thresholds.

The vendor operates as a vertically integrated marine services provider with no named subcontractors across its award portfolio. This posture — 100% prime, 0% sub, zero sub-engagement on SCI records — indicates the company builds and delivers its own technical teams and does not function as a feeder to larger primes or as a consortia member on government-wide vehicles. It is a standalone small maritime contractor, not a subcontractor to other federal prime contractors.

Vehicle holdings include a $26.3 million Coast Guard Indefinite Delivery Contract (HSCG4009D60050) with multiple task orders, plus smaller IDCs and basic ordering agreements with the Army Corps of Engineers (DACW4985H0001, DACW3592H0002) for tug rental and vessel maintenance. Top NAICS codes reflect the vendor's core work: Ship Building and Repairing (336611) on 82 awards, with secondary activity in Coastal and Great Lakes Passenger Transportation, Port and Harbor Operations, and Navigational Services to Shipping. Top PSC codes track similarly: Non-Nuclear Ship Repair (East), Maintenance/Repair/Rebuild of Equipment for Ships and Floating Docks, and Vessel Towing. The portfolio is highly specialized — not a diversified federal contractor, but a focused maritime services firm serving a stable set of federal maritime customers.

The Great Lakes Towing Company is a diversified maritime holding company operating a fleet of tugboats throughout the Great Lakes providing ship assist, cargo transportation and logistics, ice breaking and emergency assistance to commercial vessels. The Company operates Great Lakes Shipyard, a full-service facility for vessel and barge construction, maintenance, repairs, and other large steel fabrications. The Great Lakes Towing Company also operates Plotz Machine, a full-service manual machine shop specializing in remanufactured replacement parts for commercial and industrial users and the repair and rebuilding of industrial pumps, cooling towers and ventilation systems.