NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE This is a notice of intent, not a request for a quotation. A solicitation document will not be issued, and quotations will not be requested. Purpose The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to negotiate a modification to a firm-fixed priced purchase order that was previously awarded on a noncompetitive basis with the County of Miami-Dade, located at 9105 NW 25 Street, #3049, Miami, Florida 33172, to provide evidence preservation Services for NIST’s National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Investigation of the 2021 Surfside Condominium partial collapse. The modified purchase order will specifically procure a second primary evidence facility where the contractor will provide the same storage and protection services as in the original facility for additional evidence collected from the Surfside building site. The additional services in this modification to provide a second primary evidence facility shall be performed in the current base period of performance, which is effective from 1/28/2022 through 10/27/2023, and shall be applicable for the additional option periods, as follows: Option 1 = 10/28/2023 to 01/27/2024 Option 2 = 01/28/2024 to 04/27/2024 Option 3 = 04/28/2024 to 07/27/2024 Option 4 = 07/28/2024 to 10/27/2024 Option 5 = 10/28/2024 to 01/27/2025 Option 6 = 01/28/2025 to 04/27/2025 Further, the purchase order will be modified to add the requirement for the contractor to securely transport specific evidence, while maintaining chain of custody, from the original evidence facility to the second evidence facility, which shall be performed during the base period of performance. Authority This acquisition is being conducted under the authority of FAR Subpart 13.106(b)(1) allowing the Contracting Officer (CO) to solicit from one source. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 493190 – Other Warehousing and Storage with a small business size standard of $36.5 million. Sole Source Determination The sole source determination is based on the following: The County of Miami-Dade is deemed uniquely qualified to provide the required evidence storage and preservation services for the following reasons: 1. The National Construction Safety Team Act, Pub. L. 107-231, codified at 15 U.S.C. 7301 et seq., authorizes NIST to inspect and test any building components, materials and artifacts related to the Surfside Collapse, and move such records, components, materials and artifacts. The County of Miami-Dade has the authority to investigate any death or criminal activities related to the Surfside Collapse. The NCST Act also requires NIST to cooperate with State and local authorities carrying out any activities related to the investigation. Accordingly, NIST and Miami-Dade have jointly collected evidence from the Surfside Collapse site (“Evidentiary Debris”) for their respective investigations and have agreed to provide each other access to the collected evidence until each other’s investigations are complete. 2. NIST is the custodian of the Evidentiary Debris collected at the Surfside building collapse location and works with Miami-Dade to maintain chain of custody. Miami-Dade County has leased a warehouse space to store all the evidence and provides round-the-clock police protection of the facility to ensure proper chain of custody and to prevent any tampering. Miami-Dade is the sole source that can provide NIST access to, and chain of custody protection of, the Evidentiary Debris, because of their ownership of said Debris. While other contractors could provide warehouse space, the Evidentiary Debris itself and police protection of said Debris, could not be provided by any other entity. The County of Miami-Dade was the only contractor capable of ensuring the required access was formalized for the duration of the NCST Investigation, and that could provide specific spaces for NIST’s use in the warehouse. As Miami-Dade owns the Evidentiary Debris, the MDPD was the only capable source for this requirement and NIST must work with their storage solution. At the time the purchase order was awarded, NIST only believed there would be a need for a single PEF to store and secure the evidentiary debris in. As of March 2023, NIST requires additional services for the contractor to provide a second primary evidence facility that will store and protect the investigation evidence. The additional space will allow NIST and Miami-Dade County to spread the Evidentiary Debris out so that personnel and equipment can navigate between the pieces to safely conduct testing, subsampling, and other data collection for the debris collected from the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South Condominium. Approximately 60-65% of the evidentiary debris will need to be moved to the new PEF2 space to allow for sufficient space between the specimens. In addition, approximately 20 additional specimens were identified at an offsite location that require additional storage space to contain them. The contractor shall provide a facility and security services at an additional location in Miami, FL to ensure the evidence being stored in the additional facility is protected from unauthorized access, weather and tampering. Further, NIST requires the contractor to transport specific evidentiary debris from the original primary evidence facility to the second primary evidence facility to be provided. The contractor will be required to work with NIST to maintain chain of custody of the evidentiary debris being transported at all times. The Miami-Dade Police department is still currently conducting a death investigation and requires access to the specimens and evidentiary debris stored in the current facility and the additional facility that will be procured under this modification. Because both entities are conducting concurrent investigations, chain of custody for the evidentiary debris, currently held by NIST, must also be maintained. The County of Miami-Dade was also the Incident Commander of the collapse. Further, the Miami-Dade Police Department works for the County of Miami-Dade and has identified additional warehouse space and has appropriate experience hauling large, fragile debris specimens that require tracking, such as the evidentiary debris NIST seeks to protect. Thus, the County of Miami-Dade is the only source available that is capable of fulfilling NIST’s additional requirements. The modification to this purchase order is necessary in order to avoid direct operational injury to the Government, as its ability to complete its statutory obligation hinges upon NIST obtaining the storage and protection of this Evidentiary Debris from Miami-Dade. Further, the purpose of this investigation is to improve the safety and structural integrity of buildings in the United States; thus, an inability to award the modification of this contract would impair the NCST Investigation Team in its ability and mission to prevent serious injury from occurring in the future. Information for Interested Parties Interested parties that believe they could satisfy the requirements listed above for NIST may clearly and unambiguously identify their capability to do so in writing by or before the response date for this notice. This notice of intent is not a solicitation. Any questions regarding this notice must be submitted in writing via email to Hunter Tjugum, Contract Specialist, at
[email protected]. All responses to this notice of intent must be submitted via email to
[email protected] so that they are received no later than July 24, 2023, at 10:00 AM, Eastern Time. Each response should include the following Business Information: a. Contractor Name, Address, b. Point of Contact Name, Phone Number, and Email address c. Contractor DUNS d. Contractor Business Classification (i.e., small business, 8(a), woman owned, hubZone, veteran owned, etc.) as validated in System for Award Management (SAM). All offerors must have an active registration in www.SAM.gov. e. Capability Statement