FOR RELEASE: May 30, 2024
Dear Governor Hochul, Majority Leader of the State Senate Stewart-Cousins, and Speaker of the Assembly Heastie,
RE: Industry Leadership Support for Build Better NYC Initiatives
As leaders in the design and construction community, we are committed to delivering quality public works and critical infrastructure projects that serve the City of New York. The organizations we represent work on projects ranging from building and renovation work of healthcare facilities, schools, renewable energy, residential buildings, offi ces, retail, restaurants, libraries and cultural institutions, recreation and community centers, and infrastructure including roads, bridges, public transit, airports.
Our members build public parks and plazas, sewers, and stormwater management and resiliency work and everything in between. Because each of these projects are unique and different, the processes and tools to deliver them must be more fl exible, too. Build Better NYC will allow the City to build more of our critical resiliency projects, renovate more of our cultural and library facilities, and do all of this work more effi ciently and inclusively, expanding opportunities for MWBEs and increasing engagement with the communities these projects are built to serve.
New York City’s Capital Process Reform Task Force brought together a set of experienced subject matter experts: leaders from labor, the M/WBE community, and the design and construction industry, who recommended a set of improvements to support the City in building better.
Under the leadership of Mayor Adams and Comptroller Lander, the City has made real progress to deliver projects more effi ciently, including dozens of internal process improvements and meaningful reforms at the State level in 2023, but there are more changes needed to streamline capital delivery.
As we approach the fi nal weeks of the 2024 legislative session, we urge you to expand the procurement tools available to the City with authorization of progressive design build (also known as one-step design build and phased design build) and CM-build, and modernize the public hearing requirements to provide better access for comment. It is essential that the City have tools suitable for the complexity of project needs while ensuring quality delivery, providing accountability and transparency at all stages, embedding robust workforce engagement and community participation in the process.
Expanded Alternative Delivery: We support the City’s Capital Process Reform Task Force recommendation that the City’s procurement tools included in the design build authority be expanded to allow for use of progressive design-build and construction manager-build.
• Each of these tools allow for quality-based selection. This occurs early in project development, integrating the builder into the process for site investigations and design, much sooner than in design-bid-build.
• The legislation maintains the public sector and private sector labor protections currently in the Public Works Investment Act (anti-displacement of public employees and a requirement to use Project Labor Agreements).
1. Progressive Design-build: Progressive Design-build also known as one-step design build and phased design build.
The current two-step design build is well-suited for new construction and other projects with relatively defined project requirements and site conditions, but not for complex infrastructure when the subsurface conditions are unknown.
Authorization of progressive design-build, a one-step procurement process that will allow the City to quickly select a team based on qualifications and collaborate throughout the essential early phases of design, expanding the range of projects that can be delivered using design build. This procurement method is used by several states including California, Texas, and Virginia, other NYS authorities and the private sector regularly, and as NYCHA will begin to do under State legislation enacted in 2022 to establish a NYCHA Trust.
2. CM-Build: CM-Build allows the City to engage a construction manager early in the process, using quality-based selection, to collaborate with the designer as part of an integrated project delivery team — much sooner than in design-bid-build. This procurement method is used by the federal government, and the private and non-profit sector regularly including NYPL, QPL, BPL, and cultural institutions. The City has successfully used CM-Build with emergency authority, such as during the COVID emergency when DDC built testing sites in an average of seven days and built three permanent healthcare facilities in an average of 192 days. Further, during this period, using alternative delivery mechanisms, DDC reached historic levels of M/WBE utilization.
Save time on contract registration and expand opportunity and access to comment: We support the City’s Capital Process Reform Task Force recommendation that public notice and comment (A8864/S7383) be modified, allowing for simultaneous public notice and comment on certain City contracts, potentially saving weeks of time for thousands of contracts. These proposals will result in higher-quality, more efficient public projects, and will build wealth and opportunity in diverse communities.
We urge you to support introductions and enact this legislation in the 2024 session.
Respectfully,
MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK CITY CAPITAL PROCESS REFORM TASK FORCE
Barbara Armand, President and CEO, Armand Corporation Richard Browne, Managing Partner, Sterling Project Development Group Michael A. Capasso, CEO & President, C.A.C. Industries, Inc Ali Chaudhry, Senior Vice President and Chief of Development and Government Relations, AECOM Louis Coletti, senior adviser at the law firm of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP.; Former Building Trades Employers’ Association (BTEA) President Elizabeth Crowley, President and CEO, Building Trades Employers’ Association (BTEA) Raquel Diaz, Public Sector Area Manager, Gilbane Building Company Bria Donohue, Senior Government Affairs Manager, American Institute of Architects New York (AIANY) Reverend Jacques Andre DeGraff, Chair, MBE Leadership Summit John T. Evers, President and CEO, American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of New York Felice Farber, Executive Director, Subcontractors Trade Association (STA) Alaina Gilligo, Vice President, Operations and Administration, Baruch College Shari C. Hyman, Vice President, Public Affairs, Turner Construction Company Nicholas Inga, Vice President of Construction, Con Edison Gary LaBarbera, President, Building and Construction Trades Council (BCTC) of Greater New York Jesse Lazar, Executive Director, American Institute of Architects New York (AIANY) Samuel P. Padilla, President, Padilla Construction Services, Inc. Taylor Palmer, Government Relations Manager, American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of New York Nayan Parikh, President, New York Tri-State Chapter of National Association of Minority Contractors Santos Rodriguez, Chief of Staff, Building and Construction Trades Council (BCTC) of Greater New York Arthur Rubinstein, President, Skyline Steel Corp. and Chair, Subcontractors Trade Association Legislative Committee Dan Sawh, Owner and President, Haydan Consultants Inc. Carlo A. Scissura, Esq. President and CEO, New York Building Congress (NYBC) Dan Symon, Associate Partner, Gartner; Former NYC Mayors Office of Contract Services Director Robert G. Wessels, Executive Director, The General Contractors Association (GCA) of New York
