How a Regional Bonding Program Helped J-Squared Win Millions in Work at LAX
At J-Squared General Contractors, we’ve always believed that doing quality work opens doors — but we also know that quality alone doesn’t always get a small business contractor through the door on large public infrastructure projects. Sometimes you need the right partners, the right programs, and the right support structure behind you. That’s exactly what the LA Regional Contractor Development and Bonding Program (CDABP) gave us, and we want to share that story.
Our History at LAX
J-Squared isn’t new to Los Angeles World Airports. In 2021–2022, we successfully completed work on the Bob Hope USO building and the Avis Rental Car station at LAX as a subcontractor to Meyers-Griffith JV. That work gave us a track record at one of the busiest airports in the world — and it positioned us to take the next step.
The MATOC Opportunity
In 2024, LAWA issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to build a pre-qualified list of prime contractors for over $5 billion in construction and design-build services covering airfield, terminal, and landside projects. These contracts would be structured as Multiple Award Task Order Contracts (MATOCs) —a model that allows pre-qualified contractors to compete for individual project packages as they’re released.
When our industry partner Meyers and Sons invited us to respond to the RFQ in April 2024, we jumped at the opportunity. With their support and the expertise of Mission Critical, an RFQ response specialist firm, we put together a strong submission. By late 2024, LAWA had selected 31 pre-qualified prime contractors — and J-Squared earned a spot on that list.
The Bonding Challenge
Getting pre-qualified was a major milestone. But winning work is a different challenge entirely. Public projects require bonds, and while J-Squared had successfully bonded millions of dollars of infrastructure work in the past, our current bonding capacity was approaching its limit due to the volume of projects we were actively working on.
That’s when we turned to the CDABP.
We had first learned about the program while working on a park project with the City of Los Angeles. The CDABP is administered by Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services (MWIS), a Hub International company, on behalf of the City of LA and LA Metro. The program is specifically designed to help small and local contractors compete for and complete infrastructure work by providing bonding assistance, financing, technical assistance, and networking — all at no cost to contractors.
We enrolled in the CDABP before we submitted our MATOC RFQ response and began working closely with the MWIS team from the start.
Winning Our First MATOC
When we bid on and won a $5.3 million LAWA project to install an emergency responder communications system, the CDABP stepped in with critical support — providing $250,000 in collateral that allowed us to qualify for the full bond on the contract.
Our Project Executive Steven Ross put it plainly: “The guidance and assistance from Merriwether and Williams helped increase our bonding capacity, meet our inclusivity needs, and meet the MATOC contract requirements.”
But the relationship went beyond bonding. We actively participated in the training and educational courses MWIS offers to small general contractors navigating the world of public bid construction. As Steven noted, “Merriwether and Williams doesn’t just offer bonding help. They offer ways and means to improve the experience for the contractor trying to navigate public bid construction. J-Squared has completed and graduated from numerous classes provided by MWIS, and this has given our firm confidence moving forward.”
Building Momentum
In late 2025, we secured a second MATOC win — a $3.8 million landscaping maintenance contract through LAWA. That’s nearly $10 million in MATOC work at LAX, with more opportunities on the horizon.
J-Squared, headquartered in the City of Orange, is now in the process of opening an office in Los Angeles near LAX to better serve our growing presence at the airport. Our COO, Patrick Kay, summed up where we stand: “J-Squared worked hard to get on the pre-qualified list of primes and win MATOCs, and Merriwether and Williams is helping us continue to do business at LAX.”
A Resource for Fellow Small Contractors
If you’re a small or local contractor looking to compete for public infrastructure work, we encourage you to explore the LA Regional Contractor Development and Bonding Program. The resources are real, the support is substantive, and the program costs you nothing.
Learn more and enroll at www.LAConDev.com.
We’re proud of the work we’ve built at LAX, and we’re just getting started.
This post was originally featured in the Los Angeles Sentinel.
