AEC Multiple Award Construction Contract: NAVFAC Northwest’s VETMACC

The Department of the Navy’s primary Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) agency, Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), consists of two main regions, NAVFAC Atlantic and NAVFAC Pacific, when combined offer 9 sub-regions based on geographical locations. NAVFAC also contains two specialty centers: Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center and Navy Crane Center.

NAVFAC heavily relies on their Multiple Award Construction Contracts (MACCs) region wide. Utilizing MACCs for the procurement of projects allows the agency a faster procurement among pre-vetted vendors, helping the agency make its way through a backlog of projects. NAVFAC MACCs are competed among differing competition types and cover a wide range of construction related topics, to include general construction, roofing, paving, and waterfront.

One particular upcoming NAVFAC MACC of interest is NAVFAC Northwest’s VETMACC, which Deltek is tracking under Opp ID: 169604. The MACC is anticipated to be a SDVOSB set-aside with a ceiling estimated at $99M. Based on the scope of the previous competition and seeing an agency trend of predominantly minor changes from one RFP to the next (when applicable), it is expected to be a Design-Build, Design-Bid-Build MACC for new construction, renovation, alteration, demolition and repair work for facilities located primarily within Washington State.

The incumbent MACC was awarded to the following five vendors in April 2017:

• B3 Enterprises, LLC
• Iron Mike - Bristol JV, LLC
• MACNAK Construction, LLC
• Tompco, Inc
• Veterans Northwest Construction, LLC

The incumbent MACC had an initial ceiling of $99M with a task order range of $3M to $15; however, the ceiling value was increased by $50M through a modification to the incumbent contracts in May 2019, resulting in a revised total MACC capacity of $149M. Deltek tracked this previous iteration under Opp ID: 115280. Reported spending on this MACC to date equals approximately $50M or 33.7% of the total ceiling. Of this $50M, MACNAK Construction, LLC and Veterans Northwest Construction, LLC have seen the highest obligations accounting for roughly 37.5% and 36.7% of reported spending, respectively.

The follow-on VETMACC was initially anticipated to be released in FY19. The Contracting Office told Deltek the MACC has been slightly delayed due to staffing and workload, but will still likely be released in FY19. Since we are nearing the end of the current FY, Deltek believes this MACC could be delayed further and see a release in FY20. The incumbent MACC has almost two-thirds of capacity remaining and NAVFAC Northwest has other MACCs currently in place it can use for releasing any planned task order projects, such as the NAVFAC Northwest MEGA MACC, Opp ID: 121202. In addition, the NAVFAC Northwest HUB VET MACC is currently in the source selection phase with award anticipated in March 2020, Opp ID: 131213. We have seen trends within NAVFAC over the past few fiscal years where the sub-agencies have been burning through MACC capacities and MACCs have been recompeted early. Based on the past trending, even if the follow-on VETMACC is delayed further, Deltek believes the RFP will still be released well in advance of the incumbent expirations of April 2022.

Multiple award construction contracts have been a reliable source of work within the federal AEC space. The two major AEC agencies federal wide are NAVFAC and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Deltek has identified over 300 multiple award contracts as active Opportunity Reports within the federal database. Of these active Opportunity Reports, USACE accounts for around 53.3% and NAVFAC with roughly 21.3%. Following these two agencies are the United States Air Force and the Department of Veterans Affairs, with approximately 10.7% and 5.8% of the total active Opportunity Reports.

Of these active Opportunity Reports, further insight into sub-agencies within both USACE and NAVFAC may assist vendors interested in becoming a MATOC or MACC holder. The sub-agencies within USACE with the highest count of active Opportunity Reports are Huntsville Center, Mobile District, Europe District, Omaha District and Louisville District. These top five districts account for approximately 42% of the identified active USACE Opportunities.

Within NAVFAC, the sub-agencies with the highest active Opportunity Report count are NAVFAC Atlantic (to include NAVFAC Mid-Atlantic), NAVFAC Southeast, NAVFAC Northwest, NAVFAC Southwest, and NAVFAC Washington. These five regions make up roughly 70% of active identified NAVFAC Opportunities.

From FY15-FY18, 221 Opportunities were identified as awarded through USACE. Of these, around 31% were competed on a Full and Open basis, 29% as a Small Business set-aside, 11% as 8(a), 8% as SDVOSB, and 7% as both Full and Open and Small Business.

Within NAVFAC, 85 Opportunities were identified as awarded from FY15-FY18. Competition types of these MACCs varied from those seen within USACE. Approximate NAVFAC set-aside percentages for these awarded Opportunities are as follows: 33% Small Business, 28% Full and Open, 22% 8(a), 8% HUBZone, and 7% SDVOSB.

Between the active and awarded Opportunity Reports, multiple award construction contracts offer numerous opportunities for interested vendors, with variances in areas such as general requirement scope, agencies, and competition types. These vehicles present the government with more efficient and expeditious means to contract task orders and planned projects by utilizing already identified and vetted vendors on the vehicles. Largely, these vehicles are well utilized and sought after within the federal AEC landscape.