SOURCES SOUGHT
99 -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR A FOOD AND VENDING MACHINE SERVICES CONCESSIONSAGREEMENT
- Notice Date
- 4/16/2008
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 722310
— Food Service Contractors
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 210, Greenbelt, MD 20771
- ZIP Code
- 20771
- Solicitation Number
- NNG08GEWA2
- Response Due
- 5/16/2008
- Point of Contact
- Theresa A Stevens, Contract Specialist, Phone 301-286-1842, Fax 301-286-0794
- E-Mail Address
-
theresa.a.stevens@nasa.gov
- Description
- NASA/GSFC plans to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Food and VendingMachine Services Concession Agreement.This notice is a Request for Information (RFI)and supersedes the RFI NNG08GEWA issued by NASA for similar services that originallyposted on 11/27/07. The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) at Greenbelt, MD conducts, among otherthings, space and earth science research, engineering, spacecraft integration andtesting, and mission support. GSFC currently provides for the operation of 2 fullservice cafeterias (Building 1 and Building 21) and a vending service in most, but notall**, of its facilities at Greenbelt.It has an approximate on-site population of 8,000 10,000 civil servants and contractors combined - as well as other seasonal workers,such as summer students, and visitors.The NASA GSFC facility permits its organizationsto have their own coffee messes, to include beverages and products, maintained on aninformal, local, and relatively small level.The building 21 cafeteria is approximately 10,336 square feet with a seating capacity of402. The Building 1 cafeteria is a smaller facility, approximately 5,258 square feet witha seating capacity of approximately 200. The current hours of operation for both are7:30 AM to 2:00 PM. In addition, there are approximately 141 vending machines located in34 buildings throughout the Center and a mobile snack bar which makes approximately 26stops.A list of Government-owned equipment available to the vendors is attached to this notice. NASA/GSFC does not own or maintain any of the vending machines.The operations are arranged through a concession agreement, executed and managed forGoddard by its Goddard Employee Welfare Association (GEWA), which is a non-appropriatedfund instrumentality of NASA, authorized under the National Aeronautics and Space Act of1958, as amended. Goddard reserves the right to assign execution and managementresponsibility to GEWA or to another Goddard organization, at its sole discretion, at anytime.The facilities as are often the case, are aging. The Center will be issuing acompetitive solicitation for award of combined vending/food service operations for aperiod of up to 10 years. In developing performance specifications and scoring plan forthe solicitation, the Center is interested in receiving meaningful input as to how thesefacilities may be used to offer quality food and vending services to the personnelon-site at Goddards Greenbelt campus. The Center by this release is soliciting your comments and ideas to assist in creating acompetitive environment where quality services are assured, and encouraging innovativeapproaches to the use of these facilities. Services should provide value (quality foodat reasonable prices) and range of selections, as well as provide attractiveenvironments, which will encourage employees to meet and collaborate while using thesefacilities. The Center understands that such approaches may be limited by the currentcondition of its facilities and equipment. Therefore, the Center is also interested inthose modifications to equipment and facilities, including relocation of equipment, whichare minimally necessary to enable the approaches, and how those modifications can befunded through a business case. Finally, any approaches should also identify existingoperations the contractor has demonstrated to be viable. It is the Centers current feeling that the Building 1 cafeteria, along with the Librarynoted below, offer greater opportunities for innovative services, such as a cyber-cafand/or a deli/bistro operation attractive for casual use by customers while readingpapers, viewing laptops, or having small group conversations. However, the Center is notlimited to this view if viable alternatives for a set of comprehensive food services arepossible.In addition to the above facilities, the Center is considering making available a portionof what is now its Library in Building 21, with minimal furnishings thereof, if there areviable proposals for an alternative service in the conversion of that space to acollaborative facility such as a cyber-caf. This has not been part of the previousconcession arrangements at the Center.There should be an assumption that no center funds will be provided to upgrade facilitiesand equipment, except for minimal furnishings in the Library, if such is included in theactual solicitation. Interested participants will be provided an on-site tour of thefacilities on 4/28/08.Those persons interested in this tour must email their request totheresa.a.stevens@nasa.gov by COB 4/23/08 (with full names of each individual planning toattend the site visit.You must be a US Citizen to attend this site visit). Questionsresulting from the tour must be submitted in writing by COB 5/2/08. Responses to allquestions will be posted to NAIS by COB 5/9/08. Each potential offerors comments,innovative approaches, etc. which may include concession terms and conditions necessaryto enable facility and/or equipment upgrade are due by 4:30 p.m. local time on05/16/2008.The Center recognizes the need of any potential Offeror to protect information whichprovides specific approaches to meeting the Centers requirements. This is particularlythe case involving innovative approaches to the use of Center facilities, which have notbeen available at the Center previously. Therefore, the Center intends to protect thespecific description of any innovative use identified in response to this Request ForInformation, as well as associated terms and conditions (e.g. specific investmentstrategies), while reserving the right to: 1) modify its statement of requirements tocharacterize, through a set of performance-based requirements, services to be required inuse of the identified facilities; and 2) identify an evaluation and scoring plan, whichgives the Center maximum ability to give credit for viable, innovative approaches, whilebalancing the need for reasonable product pricing and high quality food products. TheCenter shall only consider release of such limited-rights information outside of theGovernment in response to a request submitted under the Freedom of Information Act, 5U.S.C. 552, and shall provide the necessary analysis required under NASAs regulations at14 CFR Part 1206 in order to reflect the status of such data as proprietary to thesubmitter. Such specific descriptions are considered to be proprietary to the submitteruntil award of the contemplated concession agreement, at which time there shall be nofurther obligation on the part of the Government to protect such information. ** Randolph-Sheppard operations are provided outside the concession agreement forBuilding 33 and are expected to be provided for Building 34 when completed. Thosebuildings are excluded from the provision of the concession agreement. Interested organizations may submit their capabilities, qualifications, innovations andideas to perform the effort in writing to the identified point of contact not later than4:30 p.m. local time on 05/16/2008. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.Prospective offerors are invited to submit written comments or questions to: ContractSpecialist Theresa Stevens via electronic transmission at Theresa.A.Stevens@nasa.gov orby facsimile transmission at 301-286-1649, no later than 4:30 p.m. on 05/02/2008. Whenresponding reference NNG08GEWA2. All responsible sources may submit an offer which shall be considered by the agency.Comments may be forwarded via electronic transmission or by facsimile transmission to:Point of ContactName: Theresa StevensTitle:Contract SpecialistFax: 301-286-1649Email:theresa.a.stevens@nasa.govThis presolicitation synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government,nor will the Government pay for the information submitted in response.Respondents willnot be notified of the results.An ombudsman has been appointed -- See NASA Specific Note "B".Ombudsman: Judith N. Brunner, Mailstop 100 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Business Phone: 301 286-8936, Fax Number: 301 286-1714, E-mail address: Judith N. Brunner@nasa.govThe solicitation and any documents related to this procurement will be available over theInternet. These documents will reside on a World Wide Web (WWW) server, which may beaccessed using a WWW browser application. The Internet site, or URL, for the NASA/GSFCBusiness Opportunities home page is: http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eps/bizops.cgi?gr=D&pin=51 It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor the Internet cite for the release of thesolicitation and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible fordownloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments, if any. Any referenced notes may be viewed at the following URLs linked below.http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eps/bizops.cgi?gr=D&:pin=51#117173
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