Multifamily Decarbonization Program Administrator Applications

Multifamily Decarbonization Program Administrator

Applications are now open. This request will remain open through April 30th at 11:59PM. King County may extend the deadline depending on volume of submissions from qualified applicants. King County will notify each applicant no later than 60 days following submission about the status of their application.

All application materials should be submitted through the JotForm submission page. Apply here!

King County is soliciting applications from qualified firms to serve as the Multifamily Decarbonization Program Administrator - Electrification, Weatherization, Benchmarking, and Technical Assistance. The Administrator will assist with the delivery of the Multifamily Building Decarbonization program of King County’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) funded by the EPA. Submissions are requested from contractors who can provide services for one or more of the following:

• Administer a building retrofit program for naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH),
• Provide benchmarking services for both NOAH and subsidized affordable housing, and
• Provide technical assistance services for both NOAH and subsidized affordable housing.

Services will be distributed between King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. The Contractor or Contractors will work to deliver the CPRG goals to decarbonize and weatherize at least 50 affordable housing buildings, benchmark 130 buildings, provide technical assistance to 25 buildings, and work with King County’s Regional Finance Team to decarbonize those 25 buildings using external funding sources, and identify units for distribution of 300 heat pump water heater rebates. The purpose of this Request for Application (RFA) is to establish a contract to provide goods and/or services.

The term of the Contract will be through December 31, 2029, subject to funding availability and contractual termination clauses. Program Administration will begin in the 3rd quarter of 2025, with a majority of work concentrated in the 2026 and 2027 calendar years. Benchmarking services work will likely be concentrated through calendar years 2025-2027, and Technical Assistance services concentrated in calendar years 2026-2027.

Eligibility Requirements

Eligible applicant entities include private contractors or consulting firms, and nonprofit organizations. Contractors and subcontractors performing building retrofits must be licensed and bonded by the State of Washington; building subcontractors must have a current, valid Contractor’s license in additional to applicable local licenses. If selected for the contract, the contractor(s) must meet the following:

• Prevailing wage requirements per the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries and federal Davis Bacon Act wage requirements,
• Sourcing requirements under the Build America, Buy America (BABA) provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and
• Non-discrimination and procurement activity requirements of the EPA’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program under assistance agreements, contained in 40 CFR, Part 33.

Application Requirements

Applicants must provide an up-to 15-page application response describing the following:

• The Applicant’s team, including any subcontractors, and their qualifications to carry out program requirements. Specify the project manager on the Applicant’s team for the proposed body of work.
• Indication of which program(s) the Applicant is applying for.
• Your team’s experience in providing the proposed services, including work with target populations.
• Your service area in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, specifying if there are counties or parts of counties that your team does not serve.
• Experience and/or training in complying with prevailing wage requirements.
• Applicant approach to providing services for delivery of the program, including staffing structure, and process for:
  • Performing work according to established industry standards.
  • Ensuring customer satisfaction.
  • Tracking client status and ensuring timely invoicing.
• Meeting other product or service criteria as outlined in the application.

Submitting Questions

Questions regarding this funding opportunity should be directed to cprg@kingcounty.gov. Answers to questions will be provided in written form in the FAQ section on this funding page. Questions must be submitted by April 23rd at 11:59PM to be reviewed.

Informational Webinar  

King County recently held an optional informational webinar to review information about the application process. View a video and related documents below. Additional formats are available upon request; contact cprg@kingcounty.gov.

• Slide Deck
• Transcript
• Attendance List

Funding Acknowledgement

This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement 84101001 to King County of Washington. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, nor does the Environmental Protection Agency endorse trade names or recommend the use of commercial products mentioned in this document, as well as any images, video, text, or other content created by generative artificial intelligence tools, nor does any such content necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please submit additional questions regarding this RFA to CPRG@kingcounty.gov. Responses to questions received will be posted on this page.

Q: Are Applicants required to submit resumes for key team members included in the project?

A: Applicants are encouraged to discuss qualifications of project staff in the application narrative response outlined in Section 1.13D, Experience, Background, and Qualifications of the RFA. Applicants are not required to submit resumes for project team members.

Q: Please describe the County’s process for release of funds to the Contractor(s) under this award, including requirements for monthly invoicing, advanced payments, and mobilization clauses.

A: King County anticipates issuing a master contract to the successful applicant(s) and authorizing work via work orders for approved sites. The contract type will be either cost-reimbursement or fixed-price, subject to negotiation. The payment schedule and requirements, including mobilization clauses, for the awarded contractor(s) is subject to negotiation with King County. Contractors are eligible to submit advanced payment requests, but all such requests shall be limited to the immediate cash needs for the project.

Q: How should Applicants break out percentage of WBE and MBE firms utilized if a firm is certified MWBE?

A: Applicants utilizing a firm certified as both MBE and WBE should count that firm's participation toward one or the other category, not both, for the purpose of this application. Express the firm's portion of the project as a percentage of total project dollars allocated to the firm. For example, if you have an MWBE certified sub-contractor utilizing 10% of your project budget, you may select to report MBE utilization of 10% or WBE utilization of 10%, but not both.

Q: Should program marketing costs be included in the Program Administration budget?

A: Program marketing costs are expected to be minimal and should be included in the Cost Proposal for tasks 2, 3, and 4, as appropriate. Marketing services will be performed in collaboration with King County as needed to recruit program participants.

Q: To what degree is King County able to provide interpreter services?

A: Where necessary to maintain equitable access to services, King County will support the translation and interpretation of materials, including key written and digital materials prepared by the Contractor(s).

Q: Are only buildings covered under Building Emissions/Energy Performance Standards eligible for the benchmarking program?

A: All buildings that meet the criteria of being a multifamily building (greater than 4 rentable units) and are considered affordable housing, either subsidized or unsubsidized, are eligible to receive benchmarking services. The benchmarking program is not intended solely for buildings covered under the Seattle Building Emissions Performance Standard or the Washington State Clean Buildings Performance Standard.

Q: What will the share of community outreach and engagement look like between the Contractor(s) and King County?

A: Community engagement for this program will be a collaborative effort between the Contractor(s) and King County, based on the experience of the Contractor(s) and the outreach and implementation approach established by the selected Contractor(s) and King County. Community outreach is an expected component of the NOAH Program Administrator, with optional components for the Benchmarking and Technical Assistance Contractor(s) based on firm competencies.

Q: How does King County define a “building”?

A: A multifamily building for this program is defined as a structure with more than 4 rentable units within the same building envelope. For example, a complex with five 8-unit structures with separate building envelopes will be considered five buildings.

Q: Are the buildings receiving Technical Assistance intended to receive funding for retrofits through the NOAH program, or are those intended to be a separate group of buildings?  

A: The Technical Assistance program will aim to prepare 25 additional non-NOAH program buildings for decarbonization projects that will be externally funded (i.e. not utilize funds provided through the Multifamily Decarbonization Program at King County for decarbonization retrofits). The Technical Assistance Contractor will work with the King County Senior Regional Finance Project Manager to identify funding opportunities for these projects.

Q: Please provide guidance on how available funds stated in Section 2.8 should be allocated to respective tasks outlined in Section 2.3

A: Contractor applying for program administrator only, shall propose costs for tasks 1, 2, 5, and 6. Cost Proposal shall not exceed $13,081,855.
A contractor applying for Benchmarking only or Technical Assistance only, shall propose costs for tasks 1, 5, and 6 in addition to task 3 or 4 respective to the proposed service area. Cost Proposal shall not exceed $ 1,522,800 and should be based on reasonable estimates to meet respective program targets outlined in Section 2.1.
A Contractor applying to perform all three service types shall address all Tasks in the Scope of work. Cost Proposal shall not exceed $14,604,655.

Q: What costs distributed to MWBEs count toward the Applicant’s MWBE Utilization Plan goals? Do equipment, installations, and labor costs distributed to MWBE contractors apply to the Utilization plan?

A: MWBEs can work at any level of the project team. Any MWBE providing services under the scope of work, including subcontractor labor or supplier costs, may be included in the MWBE utilization plan.

Q: In addition to the RFA Narrative Response document that is limited to 15 pages total, can Bidders include a “Bid Cover Page”, “Table of Contents”, and “Cover Letter” to accompany the bid? Or would those 3 items have to be in the 15-page count to be included?

A: All submission for the narrative response portion of the application must be fifteen (15) pages maximum, inclusive of all elements the Applicant wishes to submit in response to the instructions. This includes cover pages, tables of contents, and cover letters.

 

Q: In the Cost Proposal Attachment, are the Total Costs in column E of the Cost Proposal tab intended to be the equal to the sum of costs expressed in the other three tabs? (NOAH Administrator Estimate, Benchmarking Estimate, and Technical Assistance Estimate)

 

A: Yes. The sheet titled “Cost Proposal” is intended to provide the total project cost estimate for the proposing firm, inclusive of all service area costs. The additional three sheets should be used to estimate project costs for each service area the Applicant is applying to complete.

Q: If a bidder is submitting for all 3 services areas – does King County want 9 total references (3 per service area)? Or, for example, if some references cover multiple SOW tasks’ services, can those make up the 3 total required per bidder requirement?

A: Applicants, including those applying to multiple service areas, need only submit 3 references per application, with at least 1 reference per service area to which the Applicant is applying. Applicants are welcome to list more than 3 references, but no extra points will be awarded for additional references provided.

Q: Whose responsibility is it to advertise and recruit for potential buildings/clients? 

A: The recruitment for program participants will be a collaborative effort between King County and the NOAH Program Administrator contractor. Under Experience, Background, and Qualifications, the RFA asks for respondents proposing to deliver whole building decarbonization (i.e., NOAH Program administrator applicants) to provide, “examples of beginning-to-end decarbonization, including outreach and customer enrollment…”. As such, responses should include examples of outreach experience, and this experience will be scored in proposals for this service area.

Benchmarking and Technical Assistance contractor(s) outreach deliverables may vary based on firm competencies and experience in target communities. Applicants to the Benchmarking and Technical Assistance service areas may choose to provide outreach experience information, but it is not required in proposals for these service areas, and will not be an attribute included in scoring of proposals for these service areas.

Following contractor section for this RFA, selected contractor(s) will work with King County on expected outreach scope deliverables based on experience and their selected service areas, including potentially hosting informational sessions, outreach campaigns to reach target communities, and other activities that may boost visibility and implementation of the program services.

Q: What is a "building unit" compared to number of buildings (RFA Section 2.1, "Weatherize and electrify 500 – 750 multifamily building units across an estimated 50 buildings.")? 

A: A building unit refers to the rentable residential spaces within the building envelope, often referred to as rental units.

Q: Are there any requirements about the building types expected to be served, beyond being multifamily housing and meeting the 500+ total units served, assuming a unit is one residential unit/home? 

A: Eligibility for program services is limited to affordable multifamily properties, defined as buildings with 5 or more building units (also known as rental units) serving residents earning 80% of county area median income (AIM) or below.

The NOAH Program, which provides direct retrofits to program buildings, will serve only buildings consuming fossil fuels onsite, and are unsubsidized or Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH), defined as buildings that:

• Have rents that are affordable (costing no more than 30% of household income) to low-income tenants,
• Have 50% of units occupied by low-income tenants defined as tenants making 80% AMI or below, and
• Not utilize direct government subsidies to keep rents affordable. Note that section 8 vouchers and occupant receipt of LIHEAP utility payment assistance are not considered direct government subsidies. Buildings using section 8 vouchers and/or where occupants receive LIHEAP utility payment assistance, and that do not otherwise receive direct government subsidies, may qualify as NOAH buildings

Benchmarking and Technical Assistance programs may serve both subsidized and unsubsidized affordable multifamily housing, with a goal of at least 50% of program buildings qualifying as NOAH.

Total program investments must direct 40% of funds to Justice40 Communities, as defined by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) data. Program investments will be directed to counties proportional to their county-wide population and presence of Justice40 Communities. These targets will affect the locations of recruited building participants.

Q: May properties only be selected from unincorporated portions of referenced county list (King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish)? 

A: Eligible properties may be selected from both incorporated and unincorporated areas of the target counties

Q: Can applicants be part of multiple teams covering different combinations of service areas? 

A: Yes, applicants may participate in multiple teams covering different service areas. Applying on multiple teams will not impact eligibility of each application.

Q: As an HVAC contractor in King County, can we apply for NOAH program? Or both Benchmarking Contractor and NOAH?

A: Yes, you are eligible to apply for the NOAH Program Administrator and/or for the Benchmarking Contractor; however, we encourage installation contractors to team up with another firm who can complete the remaining pieces of the service areas you are applying for. We encourage installers to apply with firms who can serve as the NOAH Program Administrator and lead the full scope of work for that service area, including managing installers and other subcontractors.

Q: How will different applications be scored?

A: Each application will be given a score based on application content, as described in the RFA. The highest scoring applicant will receive the contract for services they applied for. If necessary, King County will award 1-2 additional contracts to the next highest scoring applicants for the remaining service areas.

Q: Are there benefits to applying for one or multiple service areas?

A: Applicants will have the opportunity to share the benefits of their selected service areas in the application process, including the applicants’ perceived or proposed benefits of focusing on a single service area, or alternatively addressing multiple service areas. King County does not preference a combination of service areas over single service areas.

Q: Do I have to apply to all three service areas?

A: No. Applicants may apply for any combination of the three service areas (i.e., apply for just one of the service types or a combination of them). The applicant must be able to complete all pieces of the service area to which they apply.