Army Corps seeks builders for a cargo training academy at FLETC Charleston

The federal law enforcement training campus on the former Charleston Naval Base is a step closer to a new academy for trade and cargo instruction. The Army Corps of Engineers is now picking a contractor to build it.

The Corps’ Charleston District is seeking proposals to build a Trade and Cargo Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers site in North Charleston, according to notices on SAM.gov, the federal contracting website.

The job starts with hazardous material abatement and selective demolition of a vacant 30,000-square-foot, three-story building. Crews must keep its main lobby and maintain utility service to an occupied east wing. In its place, the contractor would build a 28,400-square-foot, two-story, flood-resilient building with classrooms, an auditorium and production spaces on the first floor and open offices on the second.

Because the site has poor soil and sits in a FEMA flood zone, the academy will rest on deep precast concrete piles, the notice says.

The same solicitation includes a separate one-story, 5,985-square-foot Cargo Security and Seized Property Training Facility for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It is designed for hands-on vehicle and cargo inspection, evidence processing and simulated storage of seized property.

“These facilities are essential for the increased student enrollment and additional courses offered supporting FLETC Charleston,” the notice says.

The Corps posted a sources-sought notice Aug. 11 and a solicitation Sept. 17. An Oct. 14 amendment extended the deadline for the final part of the proposals to noon Nov. 6. Only companies that turned in the first three parts on time can submit it, the notice says. The SAM.gov notices do not list a cost estimate or a small-business set-aside.

FLETC’s Charleston campus covers more than 200 acres and began operating Oct. 1, 2004, according to the agency. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement set up satellite academies there in fiscal 2007, and the Transportation Security Administration added an academy in fiscal 2019.