Request for Expressions-of-Interest (EOI) CQ 9214

Carmen Turner Café

June 2, 2009

Introduction:

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) seeks to identify qualified firms interested in (1) Re-commissioning the former cafeteria at the Carmen Turner Facility 3500 Pennsy Drive, Hyattsville, Maryland 20785. (2) Providing for Authority wide catering services (fee based).  Note - This is not a competitive solicitation.  The EOI may or may not lead to entering into an agreement with a food service provider.

Objectives:

•·                     Food Service Providers (FSP) will upgrade the existing kitchen facilities   to provide a satisfactorily operational platform compatible with and   enabling their operational approach serving (to include carryout)   appealing meals at affordable pricing.

•·                     FSP will obtain all necessary operational permits including, but not limited to, the Health Department permit.

•·                     In addition FSP will provide catering services for Metro wide facilities.

CTF Café                          

General Scope Of Work:

Background:

The cafeteria located at the Carmen Turner Facility in Landover, Maryland is approximately 3,500 square feet.  Currently, a portion of the area is being used as a conference room.  Numerous activities such as training classes, seminars and HR functions are conducted in this room.  The rear of the room was previously a fully operational kitchen which was used to provide cafeteria services to the building's former occupants.  Some of the kitchen equipment includes a commercial grade stove/oven, refrigerator/freezer and food storage area.  The existing kitchen equipment is at least 15 to 20 years old and would in all likelihood need to be replaced.  The seating area per county code has a maximum capacity of 240 people. 

Scope of Work:

WMATA would like a food service company to take a survey of the existing conditions of the cafeteria to determine the extent of renovations needed to make the cafeteria fully functional and operational.  This company should also be able to recommend to the Authority types of food services it can provide that would be profitable for their operation.  They should provide minimum participation requirements of the building's occupants in order to sustain operations.  They should be able to recommend hours of operation based on anticipated use.  There are approximately 1000 employees that work full time from this facility.  Other groups may report to this location for training, seminars, meetings or other temporary assignments.   Initially 300 employees can be expected to use this cafeteria on a daily basis. It is anticipated WAMTA Operations and Control Center, with a staff of 80, currently located at the Jackson Graham Building, 600 5th Street NW, will be relocating to the Carmen Turner Facility early 2010.

Other items for consideration...Insurance, cleaning of kitchen, serving, and eating area, providing table and chairs (with possible seasonal outside dining). For security concerns CTF is a non-public service facility.

Offerors are being asked to invest capital in this renovation work with the intended objective to operate the Café and provide food services as fully operational cafeteria.  The option of providing other food or catering services for the Authority wide operations will also be considered. 

Offerors are to provide their capability in obtaining all necessary operational Permits. 

NAICS REFERENCE NO.   722212 and 722320

Structure of EOI:

Expressions-of-Interest shall be no more than twenty (20) pages in addition to the standard informational or promotional literature of the submitting entity. The submission must be clearly marked as "CQ 9214, EOI - Carmen Turner Café Firms are strongly encouraged to provide additional comments and suggestions relative to the project scope, methodologies and technologies, and approach to achieve quality and economical food service.

The EOI should contain a profile of the firms' experience in successfully providing this type of service or similar services to large private sector, governmental or other organizations. Please include relevant points-of-contact including telephone numbers, and, if available, email addresses.

Additionally, the EOI should contain the entity's anticipated method of the implementation of all activities necessary for the successful operation of the successful operation of food service and catering.

Submission Date and Contact Person:

Questions concerning this request should be submitted via email to Jim Foote WMATA Office of Procurement at the e-mail address listed below by July 1, 2009.

Interested firms should submit their Expressions-of-Interest electronically by 2:00pm on July 10, 2009 to Jim Foote at [email protected].

Ashok K. Rajpal, Contracting Officer

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

600 Fifth Street, NW

Washington, DC 20001