CSA Group presents A&E approach, technology and timeline for Hillsborough County CDBG/BR housing repairs

CSA Group on Thursday presented its architectural and engineering approach to a Hillsborough County procurement committee for RPS 25Dash00379, the solicitation for CDBG/BR single-family housing repair and replacement services. The firm emphasized experience in disaster-recovery programs, tools for field documentation and a plan to coordinate closely with county grant managers.

"This project ... is deeply personal to me," said Jessica Mauricio, CSA senior project manager, describing multiple team members' hurricane recovery experience and the firm's preference to staff projects with people who have worked together on similar scopes. Mauricio said the firm's A&E work covers intake and eligibility, damage assessments, environmental reviews, permitting, design and construction closeout.

Why it matters: The county's RPS will select an A&E team that must map technical designs to CDBG/BR funding and FEMA requirements; vendors that can both document damage accurately and coordinate grant approvals can reduce rework and funding delays.

CSA cited prior work on New York City's Build It Back program and disaster projects in Florida and Puerto Rico as relevant experience. "CSA has over 70 years experience overall," said a company speaker, and the firm highlighted more than three decades of emergency-management work and subcontracted roles assisting damage-estimate efforts in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties used for CDBG grant generation.

Presenters stressed two technical capabilities likely to matter to the county. Mauricio described the firm's field tools: "HoloBuilder is a great tool. It allows us ... to take photos and have it translated back to the office so that we can see live what is happening in the field," and said CSA uses lidar scanning to capture building information for QA/QC. The team also said that when CSA has performed damage assessments and precondition scans, that work was done in-house rather than by third-party subcontractors.

On lessons learned, Mauricio pointed to design and scope risks observed in prior programs. "Some of the homes that we raised were 3 story homes. And once you raise that home, it became a 4 story home. And then, therefore, it triggered a code for fire protection and sprinklers," she said, citing an example of how early decisions can create new code and cost obligations.

Capacity and coordination: Juan Negarejo, who identified himself as a senior vice president and one of CSA's owners, told the committee the firm has "about 600 professionals in total and a total of about 65 in Florida." The presenters said they can work hand-in-hand with the county's program manager or supply supplemental grant-management services; they named Raquel Carrion as a grant-management specialist who has worked on CDBG-DR and Build It Back projects and who would review design proposals for fundability and FEMA compliance.

Timing estimates provided to the committee were: roughly 3–6 months for design depending on mitigation scope, 3–4 months for permitting in the City of Tampa/Hillsborough County environment, and about 12 months for construction in a worst-case full rebuild scenario. The presenters emphasized designs must be tailored to each home, though some modular or repeated elements can speed delivery where appropriate.

There was no committee vote or award during the session. The buyer, Ethan Kersey, closed the meeting, asked participants to monitor the county procurement portal for updates and announced a follow-up meeting for later the same day.

The committee will proceed through its procurement schedule; vendors' experience with FEMA/CDBG funding, documented field-scanning processes and demonstrated coordination with grant managers are likely to influence the county's evaluation.