ARLINGTON, Va. – The National Guard Bureau, in partnership with the District of Columbia National Guard and the U.S. General Services Administration, awarded a $292 million task order to Placemakr June 22 to provide up to 2,000 apartment-style lodging units for Guardsmen mobilized to support Joint Task Force – District of Columbia.  

The award supports requirements stemming from Executive Order 14252, Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful. The contract is the largest interagency lodging acquisition in National Guard history, providing a long-term housing solution to improve troop readiness, quality of life and operational security while reducing costs to taxpayers, all key issues given the scale and scope of the D.C. mission.

“We brought 2,500 Guardsmen in from 15 states and the District of Columbia, and you all have done an amazing job,” said Gen. Steve Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau, while addressing troops in D.C. in July. “[Since arriving] you saved over 235 lives. You’ve done over 530 medical assistances to personnel, you restored children back to their families 27 times, and you have done amazing things in support of law enforcement to make sure we reduce crime.”  

Up to this point, mobilized troops stayed in hotels scattered over the region.  

“This contract delivers stable, secure housing for our Soldiers and Airmen while achieving significant cost savings for the government,” said Monica Williams, executive director of acquisitions and head of contracting activity for the National Guard Bureau. “We were able to move quickly to meet mission requirements and provide a long-term solution for deployed personnel.”

The acquisition was completed in just 85 days. Comparable acquisitions of similar sizes and complexity usually require four to six months to complete. The award remained on schedule despite an agency-level vendor protest, which was reviewed and denied.

To accelerate the timeline, the General Services Administration, or GSA, and the District of Columbia National Guard used an acquisition plan in which vendors delivered oral presentations in lieu of lengthy written proposals, allowing evaluators to reach consensus quickly while assessing each company’s understanding of the mission requirements. Using GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule program, the government negotiated pricing about 49% below projected short-term commercial hotel costs and 27% below standard GSA schedule pricing for lodging and housekeeping services.

In addition to financial benefits, the apartment-style accommodation provides deployed personnel with more stable living conditions, improved privacy and quality of life and access to secure parking and consolidated support services.  The move will also return a significant number of commercial hotel rooms to the local market, increasing capacity for tourism and business travel during the region's peak travel season.