Writing an RFP for Commercial Contractor Services

A Request for Proposal (RFP) is the structured document that commercial owners, developers, and facility managers use to solicit competitive bids from qualified contractors before committing to a construction or renovation engagement. This page explains how an RFP is defined in the commercial contracting context, how the process unfolds from document preparation through contractor selection, the scenarios where an RFP is the appropriate procurement instrument, and the decision boundaries that distinguish it from simpler or more complex alternatives. Understanding RFP mechanics is essential to achieving cost transparency, regulatory defensibility, and contractor accountability on commercial projects of any scale.

Definition and scope

In commercial construction procurement, an RFP is a formal solicitation document issued by a project owner — or the owner's representative — requesting detailed proposals from prequalified or open-market contractors. Unlike a simple Invitation to Bid (ITB), which asks only for a price against a fixed scope, an RFP solicits methodology, staffing plans, qualifications, schedule logic, and cost simultaneously. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Part 15 codifies the RFP as the standard competitive negotiation instrument for federal construction contracts, and most state procurement agencies mirror this structure for publicly funded projects.

Scope in the commercial private sector is broader. An RFP can cover a single commercial tenant improvement engagement, a full design-build commercial contractor delivery, or a multi-phase industrial contractor services program. The document sets the rules of competition: who may respond, what must be submitted, how proposals will be evaluated, and under what terms a contract may be awarded.

A well-constructed RFP contains at minimum:

1. Project description and objectives — program summary, square footage, occupancy type, and performance goals
2. Scope of work — defined phases, work categories, and exclusions
3. Submission requirements — format, page limits, required certifications
4. Evaluation criteria and weights — scoring methodology made explicit to all respondents
5. Contract terms and conditions — draft agreement, insurance minimums, bonding requirements
6. Schedule milestones — proposal due date, clarification window, award target, and construction start
7. Owner-furnished information — site surveys, geotechnical reports, existing drawings

How it works

The RFP process follows a defined lifecycle that typically spans 6 to 12 weeks from issuance to contractor selection, depending on project complexity.

Preparation phase: The owner or project manager assembles the RFP package. This includes finalizing scope documents, drafting evaluation criteria, and coordinating with legal counsel on contract language. Projects using pre-construction services often develop RFP scope from feasibility studies completed in that earlier phase.

Issuance and distribution: The RFP is released to a shortlisted group (closed RFP) or published publicly through a procurement portal (open RFP). Government-funded projects above defined thresholds — for example, the FAR Part 36 threshold of $2,000 for federal construction simplified acquisition — are generally required to compete publicly.

Clarification period: Contractors submit written questions during a defined window, typically 10 to 14 days. The owner issues addenda that become part of the official RFP record. A pre-proposal site walk, documented and attended by all respondents, is standard practice for projects involving existing structures.

Proposal submission and evaluation: Proposals are scored against the published criteria. A common weighting structure allocates roughly 30–40 percent to technical approach and qualifications, 30–40 percent to cost, and the remainder to schedule, safety record, and references — though owners adjust weights based on project risk profile.

Selection and negotiation: The highest-scoring respondent enters exclusive negotiation. Revisions to scope and price may occur before contract execution. The output is a binding commercial contractor contract aligned to the project delivery method selected.

Common scenarios

RFPs are used across the commercial construction spectrum, but three scenarios represent the most frequent applications:

Public and institutional projects: Municipal, healthcare, and education facility owners are often legally obligated to use competitive solicitation. A healthcare facility contractor engagement for a hospital expansion, or an education facility contractor project for a new academic building, typically requires a full RFP under state procurement statutes.

Complex private-sector developments: Mixed-use, hospitality, and office build-out projects where scope is partially undefined benefit from the RFP structure because it allows contractors to propose innovative approaches rather than just pricing a fixed set of drawings.

Multi-trade specialty work: When an owner needs to coordinate commercial electrical, commercial HVAC, and commercial fire protection scopes under a single general contractor, an RFP enables evaluation of the GC's subcontractor management capability — a factor that a simple ITB cannot capture.

Decision boundaries

The choice between an RFP, an Invitation to Bid (ITB), and a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) depends on scope definition, project risk, and procurement flexibility.

An RFP is the correct instrument when at least one of three conditions is present: the owner cannot fully define scope in advance, the selection criteria extend beyond lowest cost, or the project involves phased delivery where contractor input will shape subsequent phases.

Projects that are fully designed and permitted — with complete construction documents issued for bid — typically do not benefit from an RFP format. A lump-sum ITB produces more directly comparable pricing in those cases and reduces evaluation burden. Conversely, an RFQ alone is appropriate only when the owner intends to negotiate sole-source and simply needs to establish contractor qualifications before entering discussions, a pattern common in construction management services engagements where the CM is engaged before design is complete.

Evaluation scoring must be disclosed in the RFP itself. Undisclosed weighting adjustments made after proposals are received expose public owners to bid protest risk under statutes enforced at the state level and, for federal projects, by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Bid Protest function.

References

• Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Part 15 — Contracting by Negotiation
• Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Part 36 — Construction and Architect-Engineer Contracts
• U.S. Government Accountability Office — Bid Protests
• National Institute of Building Sciences — Whole Building Design Guide, Procurement
• American Institute of Architects — AIA Contract Documents