Reprographics 101

I don’t know when this bid abstract was prepared – for it has no date on it – and I don’t have the original bid (procurement) document.

http://procure.ocps.net/rfpdocs/0906184ITB_BidTabulationPost.pdf

Although I don’t know what year this bid took place, I’m positive that it took place after January 2008.

Here’s a link to last year’s bid document from the City of Cambridge, MA

http://www2.cambridgema.gov/purchasing/documents/1359/Bid1359.pdf

According to the bid document, last year’s bid was for a “one year term”.

The deadline for bid submittals, last year, was December 16, 2010.

That likely means that there will soon be a new bid document coming out.

Last year, only three bidders submitted bids, one of which was rejected.

If you are interested in being a bidder this year, you might want to consider contacting the purchasing agent for this bid, just to touch base and express your interest.

I’ve done several fairly recent posts on Reprographics 101 about the A/E/C industry recovery currently going on in the Boston, MA market area. Those previous posts highlighted new developments, both planned and underway, in the “mixed use,” “retail” and “office building” sectors. In those sectors, several “mega” projects, at least two of which were in planning years ago, before the plug was pulled, are now back in play, either in planning or under development.

Yesterday, another bullish article about Boston area real estate development activity, appeared in the Boston Globe, this one about booming activity in the “multifamily residential” (rental apartment) sector. Below, you’ll find that article.

The substantial increase in A/E/C sector activity in the Boston market area is not just good news for Boston area reprographers. This increased activity should be taken as good news for reprographers in all major market areas, for what happens in one market, generally trickles into other markets.

Read on…..

Apartment construction booms as rents rise

October 15, 2011 | By Casey Ross, Boston Globe Staff

A burst of apartment construction is sweeping across Boston’s neighborhoods, as several developers are starting towering projects to tap into high demand for rental units while the homeownership market continues to struggle.

In the last few weeks, three builders have started work on complexes that combined will bring more than 850 new apartments to the city over the next couple of years. On Monday, a fourth builder will announce plans to build 295 apartments on a vacant parcel in Chinatown.

The rush of activity is fueled by climbing rents and dropping vacancy rates that make apartment buildings particularly attractive investments in the otherwise dour real estate market. In the quarter that ended Sept. 30, average asking rents in Boston climbed to $1,773, making the city the fourth most expensive rental market in the country, according to Reis Inc., a real estate research firm. Only New York City; Westchester, N.Y.; and Fairfield County, Conn., are more expensive.

Vacancy rates, meanwhile, dropped to 4.2 percent, from 5.5 percent in the same quarter in 2010, according to Reis.

The heightened demand for rentals goes beyond downtown Boston, with large new complexes also going up in Somerville, Cambridge, Cohasset, Weymouth, Andover, and other municipalities. Real estate specialists said the increasing supply will eventually help to moderate prices.

“If I’m a renter, I’m encouraged by this,’’ said Gregory Vasil, chief executive of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. “It’s been a very long time since we’ve really produced a lot of apartments like this, and the increased supply will help address the problem’’ of ever-rising rents.

For developers, Boston has quickly moved up the list of the nation’s best places to build apartments. It is now ranked third on the Marcus & Millichap National Apartment Index list of the strongest rental markets, up from eighth a year ago.

Behind the trend is persistent weakness in the homeownership market, as the continued soft economy, flat housing values, tougher lending rules, and high number of foreclosures have combined to keep people from buying property. With the home-purchase market so slow, lenders are much more likely to finance apartment buildings rather than condominiums.

Almost every housing project proposed in Boston in the last six months has involved rental units. Just yesterday, the Kensington Investment Co. began construction of 381-unit building on Washington Street. Also moving forward is Avalon Exeter, a 187-unit tower in the Back Bay by AvalonBay Communities Inc., and The Victor, a planned apartment complex that will add 286 units to the northern edge of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

Those projects are following an extremely productive third quarter in the city in terms of housing construction. Between July and October, builders started 1,031 new residences in Boston, the vast majority of them apartments. That’s the largest number of housing starts in any quarter since 2006, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

“What it means is that Boston is a city people want to live in and invest in,’’ Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday. “With the projects getting started, we are continuing to reinvent the city.’’

In addition to those underway, a number of other apartment projects are preparing to move forward in Boston soon. Among them are Hayward Place, a 265-unit complex on Washington Street in Downtown Crossing; a 150-unit building along Boylston Street near Fenway Park; and a trio of large projects expected to bring upward of 500 new apartments to the South Boston Waterfront in coming years.

Menino and the Patrick administration are planning an event Monday to celebrate the pending construction of a 20-story housing complex on Hudson Street in Chinatown, on vacant land next to the Interstate 93 onramp.

The builders, New Boston Fund Inc. and the Asian Community Development Corporation, expect to begin construction in the spring. The complex will have 200 market-rate apartments, 95 affordable apartments, a park, and retail stores. The developers also plan to eventually build 50 affordable ownership units.

“This adds much-needed rental housing, and that’s got to be a top priority for us,’’ the governor said in an interview yesterday. His administration is also planning an event for The Victor project on the northern end of the Greenway. “Having these brand new units right downtown, and having many of them devoted to the affordable market, is a really great thing,’’ Patrick said.

Kirk Sykes, an executive leading the Chinatown project, said that demand for apartments has remained strong while supply hasn’t kept pace.

“It’s a perfect storm of pent-up demand and lack of supply,’’ Sykes said. “The housing crisis caused a lot of people to come out of homeownership and into a rental mode.’’

More people are being forced to pursue rentals because they can’t afford higher down payments banks are demanding following the housing crisis. That is putting more pressure on the apartment market, causing average rents to increase by $124 per month, or 7.5 percent, since 2007, according to Reis.

Real estate specialists said the current market is particularly unusual because it is fueling rental construction at all price points, from luxury units in the Back Bay and downtown, to mid-priced apartments in the suburbs, to scores of affordable homes being built in Chinatown and at the Charlesview Residences in Cambridge.

Affordable units are attractive to investors because many come with credits they can use to lower their tax bills. Compared to other investments – such as stocks or government bonds – such tax credits also are seen as producing larger and more reliable returns in strong urban markets.

“A lot of investors are gravitating to Boston because of the rebound in the market here, which is allowing these deals to come together faster,’’ said Gregory Bialecki, Patrick’s top economic development aide. “If you are trying to build rental housing today, banks are lining up to provide financing.’’

The MWAA is the quasi-government agency that oversees the development, and operations of, Dulles International Airport and Ronald Regan National Airport.

Do you have any idea how much plan and spec printing business this agency has generated in the past? The answer: tons!

From the MWAA’s “business information” web-site:

Award Information – Upcoming Awards

Proposals have been received on the following projects. It typically takes between two and four weeks for construction and goods projects to be awarded after proposals have been received. A & E, concessions, and service projects usually take one or more months to be awarded due to the evaluation process.

Document Reproduction and Scanning Services


Solicitation Information: RFQ 1-11-B207;

Issued 09/12/2011;

Received 10/04/2011

When this RFP was initially posted, proposals (bid submittals) were due on October, 11, 2011, but, apparently, the due date was extended by one of the addendums.

This RFP opportunity does include “large format” reprographics services.

The “underlined” below are active links to documents:

IFB 11-9009-2EF – Due Date: 2:00 p.m., October 21, 2011

Annual Contract for Printing And Reproduction Services

Sign InSheet


Addendum 1


Addendum 2

You do not need to be an IRgA member to attend the IRgA networking reception!

All reprographers are encouraged to sign up and attend!

Announcement from International Reprographic Association

Are you attending SGIA in New Orleans? If so, we’d like to see you at the IRgA’s Networking Rception, from 4:30 – 6:00 p.m., October 19 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA. There will be a nominal fee of $35 for reprographers to attend. We hope to see you there! You can register at ww.irga.com.

If you are a vendor and have questions about sponsoring the event, please contact a member of the board of directors.

Click here to register for the event.

Ben Barclay

IRgA Sr. Operations Coordinator

401 N. Michigan Ave.

Ste 2200

Chicago, IL 60611

Tel: +1.312.673.5923

Do you have an opinion you’d like to share on the “future of Reprographics?”

– What will the industry look like after addressing all these changes?

– What will our customers want?

– Where should we be heading to prepare for a recovery?

– How will that recovery come about?

– Will the industry be permanently smaller or even recognizable in the future?

If you’d like to share your opinion about the future with visitors to Reprographics 101, you have three options to do that:

a) post your opinion as a comment

b) send me your opinion in e-mail format, and I will write it up and post it as a comment

c) author an article, and I will post it as an article from a guest-author

Suri, Chairman and CEO of ARC, will reportedly be addressing these questions during his keynote presentation at the upcoming Eastern Regional Reprographics Association Annual Convention.

2011 Hilton Head Conference Education Update Keynote Speaker, Friday November 4th morning

“The Future of Reprographics”

Presented by K. “Suri” Suriyakumar, Chairman, President and CEO of ARC

The ongoing economic conditions and dramatic downturn in construction activity has drastically altered the reprographics industry. In many cases, once vital businesses have shrunk to less than half their size, and others have simply closed their doors. In addition, our industry is being challenged with disruptive changes in technology, customer workflow, a growing desire for “greener” products and services, and of course, significant pressure to reduce costs while increasing efficiency.

What will the industry look like after addressing all these changes? What will our customers want? Where should we be heading to prepare for a recovery? How will that recovery come about? Will the industry be permanently smaller or even recognizable in the future?

Please join Suri as he considers these questions from the perspective of a long‐time industry observer and advocate, and as the business leader of ARC.

K. “Suri” Suriyakumar is the Chairman, President and CEO of ARC (NYSE:ARC), one of the nation’s leading document solutions companies providing business‐to‐business document management services and technology to customers in the architectural, engineering, and construction industries, as well as many non‐AEC industries.

We are thrilled to have Suri as our keynote speaker for 2011 and greatly look forward to the discussion. Please join us in Hilton Head, SC from November 3rd to 5th. All conference information including registration, schedules and hotel information can be located and downloaded at http://www.eastrepro.com/convention.html