Veteran Small Business Event hosted by Region 8 OSBU

by Richard Stebbins

Tim Horne, Public Building Service Regional Commissioner, addresses a group of veteran-owned business representatives about Region 8 capital projects.

The Rocky Mountain Region Office of Small Business Utilization held a matchmaking event on November 22 specifically for veteran-owned small businesses (VOSB) to link with prime contractors to maximize subcontracting opportunities in support of future work on the Denver Federal Center (DFC).

The focus on VOSB is mainly due to Veteran’s Day occurring this month but this meeting also connected vendors with local representatives from the Small Business Administration and the Procurement Technical Assistance Center who partner with GSA as advocates for small businesses.

“What we are here for is to advocate for small business,” said Eric Rettig, Small Business Technical Adviser.  We do a number of events to find businesses like yours to do work for us.”

Tim Horne, regional commissioner for Public Building Service, told the group representing 11 different firms about new capital projects coming to the DFC as well as opportunities regionally.

“In the President’s FY20 budget we were approved for four new projects on the DFC, including the construction of a new lab for the Food and Drug Administration,” said Horne.  “This is a rare new construction project for our region.”

Horne pointed out that it has been a long time since the region has had even one major project let alone four in one year. More projects for the region translates to more opportunities for small businesses because the federal government does not do much outside of project management type tasks.

“We do very little outside of project management, program management, regulatory compliance,” said Horne.  “We rely on our partnerships with the private sector and vendors such as you.”

Even without the major projects, there are still many subcontracting projects to match vendor with the prime contractors

“We are really excited about that and we know that good partnerships with all of the vendors and industry segments are important,” said Horne

This event is meant to build a base of contractors for GSA as well as provide a larger pool for the prime contractors to select from.  Vendors were selected to attend that were registered in the System for Award Management.

Michelle Leshe, Small Business Specialist for Region 8, talks individually with veteran owned business leaders.

“Our plan for Region 8 is with the number of capital projects coming up, we would like to expand our base of contractors for our Primes,” said Rettig. “We also want to provide an understanding of federal contracting regulations to give you a better opportunity to bid on projects.”

Future matchmaking events are planned throughout the year, some of which coincide with special emphasis months.