Navy contract employing New Orleans workers changes hands

Tugboats pull the USS Cole away from the Governor Nicholls Street Wharf Wednesday, April 29, 2015, as NOLA Navy Week draws to a close an ships head down the Mississippi River. (Photo by Dinah Rogers, NOLA.com / The Times-Picayune)

By Jennifer Larino, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
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on July 31, 2015 at 5:07 PM, updated July 31, 2015 at 5:19 PM

The U.S. Navy has chosen a new company to take over a contract that employs more than 100 workers at the University of New Orleans Research and Technology Park. The new contractor is expected rehire local workers and continue operations in New Orleans.

In a Friday (July 31) notice to state workforce officials, System Integration and Management said it will lay off about 100 employees at its New Orleans site over coming weeks after its contract with the U.S. Navy ended this month. Cosolutions EIS, the winner of a years-long bidding process over the work, will take over the contract.

The value of the Navy contract was not disclosed.

Mike Waters, project manager for SIM New Orleans, said Cosolutions EIS is expected to rehire the majority — if not all — of the SIM workforce and move into its office on Lakeshore Drive.

The U.S. Navy has chosen a new company to take over a contract that employs more than 100 workers at the University of New Orleans Research and Technology Park. The new contractor is expected rehire local workers and keep a location in New Orleans.

Waters said the New Orleans team provides business and personnel support services for more than 500,000 U.S. sailors worldwide through a contract with the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Center, or SPAWAR, in the Atlantic region.

Waters said the Navy originally rebid the contract in 2010, but the proposals the government has selected have been challenged three separate times over the past five years. SIM kept the contract on a temporary basis.

Cosolutions EIS, a joint venture, was selected to take over the work in June.

Waters said workers could see pay rise or fall depending on the terms of the new contract. Otherwise, the effect on the regional workforce will be minimal, he said.

CoSolutions EIS is a joint venture between CoSolutions Inc., based in Sterling, Va., and Enterprise Information Services Inc., based in Vienna, Va. The companies offer a range of support services, including IT, project management and systems engineering.

Navy contract employing New Orleans workers changes hands