Dive Brief:
- The resignation of the D.C. Department of General Services director, along with the suspension of two top employees, has come after a dispute over the award of two multimillion-dollar District infrastructure projects, according to WAMU.
- Fort Myer Construction, a supporter and donor of Mayor Muriel Bower, lost out on two contracts for infrastructure services on the future D.C. United and Entertainment and Sports Arena sites to Gilbane Building Co., which underbid Fort Myer by $10 million. Fort Myer and City Administrator Rashad Young said a new DGS scoring process "diluted" previous preferences given to Certified Business Enterprises (CBEs) like Fort Myer, and the contractor lodged a formal protest over the decision to give the work to Gilbane.
- Young's office eventually approved the DGS decision to award the contracts to Gilbane but requested that the agency require Gilbane to double its local hiring requirements, which some onlookers said was a way to placate Fort Myer and spur them to withdraw their complaint.
Dive Insight:
According to WAMU, after DGS had settled on Gilbane, Young asked DGS Director Christopher Weaver to fire two contracting and procurement employees, which Weaver refused to do. Instead, Weaver resigned from his position because of "personal obligations." Young maintains that the suspension of the two employees in question had nothing to do with the Fort Myer issue, but, after his resignation, Weaver made a statement that the contracts in questions "generated significant interest" from the mayor's office.
Events DC, the Washington, DC, convention and sports authority, awarded the joint venture of Gilbane and Smoot Construction Co. the contract for construction of the 4,200-seat ESA, which will be home to the Washington Mystics and serve as a practice facility for the Washington Wizards. Events DC officials said the project has 50% CBE goals and that 35% of total contracts will be set aside for small business enterprises (SBEs).
Turner Construction has already broken ground on the 20,000-seat, $300 million D.C. United soccer stadium, and city officials said the project will create 1,000 construction and long-term jobs for the community, as well as provide $1 billion in economic benefit to the area. Officials also said that 50% of the commercial space in the stadium’s vicinity will be reserved for area businesses.