Brooklyn's Progress
August/September 2005

By Harold Egeln

Making the grade in a "How to do Business with the New York City School Construction Authority" seminar were about two dozen business owners and entrepreneurs.  The free breakfast seminar was presented by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Brooklyn Connects procurement assistance program in conjunction with the NYC Business Solutions Center at 9 Bond St. in Downtown Brooklyn on July 12.

Steve Gonzalez, SCA Consultant and Business Development Coordinator, was the guest speaker at the seminar.  In his presentation he focused on opportunities for Minority/Women-Owned Businesses (M/WBE) as well as Locally-Based Enterprises (LBE).  With the fiscal year just ended, Mr. Gonzalez noted that the SCA did $118 million in the minority, women and locally based business bids.

Mentor Program
Mr. Gonzalez’s talk also covered the SCA's business programs for small business enterprises in the construction trades, SCA certification and prequalification requirements, training programs available through the SCA such as how to do estimates and bonding, and the SCA Mentor Program.  SCA Mentor Program graduates receive a number of benefits including invitations to two forums a year where they get to meet with the SCA's own general contractors.

"We try to increase participation in the construction and related trades for minority and women-based businesses, and locally-based projects," Mr. Gonzalez said. "The SCA Mentor Program is designed to give small, first-time contractors opportunities for bidding. It's a great opportunity for small contractors to get their feet wet."

Certification Requirements
Businesses must first become certified in order to qualify for government bidding opportunities including the SCA.  M/WBE certification requirements state that businesses must be at least 51 percent minority or women owned.  Additional requirements include either a minimum of two years in business or having their work piggybacked on another business for two or more years, $2.6 million in revenue, and a bonding capacity of less than $3 million.

Mr. Gonzalez further explained that LBEs must have at least 25 percent of the business they do performed in Economic Development Areas (EDAs), such as in Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick.  EDAs are areas of the city designated for participation in the Community development Block Grant Program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"Once certified, we will place you on a bid list with a trade code for you," Mr. Gonzalez said. "Once they graduate our Mentor Program, then they can bid with the SCA at anytime."

Businesses certified with the SCA can also contract with the Port Authority of N.Y. and N.J., the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and the NYS Empire State Development Corporation. 

SCA Mentor Program graduates can submit a copy of their SCA certification application within one year of submission to the SCA with supporting documents, and contact those agencies for specific eligibility and processing requirements.

For more information on the SCA and other government procurement opportunities, please contact Bomi Kim, Manager of Brooklyn Connects at the Brooklyn Chamber at 718-875-3400, or at bkim@brooklynchamber.com.