Thrare › Minority-owned contractors Atlanta
Certification gets a firm onto your list. Whether the participation counts is a different question, and it is the one that causes problems at award. This page answers both.
Thrare Contracting is a minority-owned contractor in Atlanta, Georgia, certified DBE and ACDBE through the Georgia Unified Certification Program, certified MBE, and self-represented SDB in SAM. We work for primes, general contractors and public agencies across metro Atlanta and Georgia on exterior cleaning, grounds and facility programs, parking decks and lots, property preservation and materials and hauling. Rare Earth Ltd is the legal entity, CAGE 9JAV8, UEI Z4WKS4UE8NJ6, registered in SAM and authorized in E-Verify.
What we do not hold, stated as plainly as what we do. HUBZone and 8(a) are not held and are never represented as held. A prime that discovers a certification gap at award has a participation problem, and it is cheaper for both of us if you know now. The full held-and-pursued position is on credentials and compliance.
What is held
Named issuing bodies and expiry dates, because a certification without one is a claim rather than a credential.
| Credential | Issuing body | Status |
|---|---|---|
| DBE | Georgia Unified Certification Program, GDOT and MARTA | Current to 2 May 2027 |
| ACDBE | Georgia Unified Certification Program | Current to 2 May 2027 |
| MBE | Certificate and issuing body sent with the vendor packet | Current |
| SAM | System for Award Management, CAGE 9JAV8, UEI Z4WKS4UE8NJ6 | Registered |
| E-Verify | Department of Homeland Security | Authorized since July 2025 |
| SDB | Self-represented in SAM | Current |
| HUBZone, 8(a) | Not held | Never represented as held |
Goal credit
This is the part most capability sheets skip, and it is the part that decides whether hiring us helps your goal or not.
Under 49 CFR 26.55(c), expenditures to a DBE count toward a DBE goal only if the DBE is performing a commercially useful function. The regulation defines it: the DBE must be responsible for execution of the work and carry that out by performing, managing and supervising it, and where materials are involved must be responsible for negotiating price, determining quality and quantity, ordering, installing where applicable, and paying for the material itself.
Two things about that test are commonly misstated, including by contractors who should know better.
It is necessary, not sufficient. Passing the commercially useful function test is one condition among several. Under 26.55(f) participation does not count if the firm is not certified at the time the contract is executed. Under 26.55(h) a subcontractor's participation does not count toward final compliance until the contractor has actually paid the DBE. And under 26.55(i), effective 3 October 2025, participation may not be counted until the Unified Certification Program covering the recipient has completed the reevaluation process in 26.111.
Subcontracting is not automatically disqualifying. Under 26.55(a)(3), work a DBE subcontracts counts if the subcontractor is itself a DBE, and does not count if it goes to a non-DBE firm. Separately, 26.55(c)(3) creates a presumption of no commercially useful function where a DBE performs less than 30 percent of the total contract cost with its own workforce, or subcontracts more than normal industry practice, and 26.55(c)(4) allows the firm to rebut that presumption. The evaluation under 26.55(c)(1) also weighs industry practice and whether the payment is commensurate with the work and the credit claimed. So it is a factual judgment, not a single threshold.
Who decides is not the prime. Under 26.55(c)(5) the commercially useful function determination belongs to the recipient, subject to review by the concerned DOT operating administration. A prime can assess its own risk, and should, but it does not make the controlling call.
| What the DBE is | Credit | Test |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | 100% | Operates a factory producing the items required by the contract. |
| Regular dealer | 60% | Owns or leases and operates a store or warehouse, keeps the items in quantity and regularly sells them. For bulk items including gravel, stone, concrete and asphalt a place of business is not required if the firm owns and operates the distribution equipment. |
| Distributor | 40% | Neither holds sufficient inventory nor uses its own distribution equipment, but takes ownership and the risk of loss in transit. |
| Anything else | Fees only | Brokers and transaction facilitators. The cost of the materials themselves does not count. |
That table matters here because we supply recycled aggregate. On a materials line the credit is normally 60 percent rather than 100 percent, and the recipient determines which category applies contract by contract under 26.55(e)(5). Any supplier implying a materials purchase earns full goal credit is either not reading the rule or hoping you are not. Trucking has its own separate test under 26.55(d).
So the useful question is not whether we are certified. It is whether the scope you are giving us is one we perform and supervise ourselves, and how the recipient will categorize it. Ask us directly. On scopes we self-perform we will say so; where we would manage rather than perform, we will tell you that too, before it goes into a bid rather than after.
Source: 49 CFR 26.55, How is DBE participation counted toward goals, read from the eCFR 2026-08-30, current as of 27 August 2026. This is a summary and not legal advice; the agency rules applying to your solicitation govern, and we confirm before representing anything.
The work
Listed because the commercially useful function test turns on this, not on the certificate.
Building washing, concrete and flatwork, sidewalks, storefronts, decks and structured parking. Our own crews and our own equipment.
Recurring grounds programs, policing and debris, seasonal and storm response across commercial and institutional property.
Securing, board ups, cleanouts and vacant asset control, performed across Georgia rather than only in the metro.
Recycled aggregate supply and construction debris removal, with scale tickets and permitted receiving facility receipts on every load.
Where a project needs a trade outside that list, we say so and we manage it rather than pretending to self-perform it. That distinction is the whole point of the section above.
Straight answers
Yes. Thrare Contracting, the trading name of Rare Earth Ltd, is a minority-owned contractor based in Atlanta, Georgia, certified DBE and ACDBE through the Georgia Unified Certification Program, certified MBE, and self-represented SDB in SAM. We work across metro Atlanta and Georgia for primes, general contractors, public agencies and commercial property owners.
It can, and the honest answer is that certification alone does not settle it. Under 49 CFR 26.55(c) a commercially useful function is necessary: we must be responsible for execution and be performing, managing and supervising the work. It is not sufficient on its own, because 26.55(f), (h) and (i) add certification at contract execution, actual payment, and completion of the Unified Certification Program reevaluation. On materials, 26.55(e) sets the credit at 100, 60 or 40 percent, or fees only, depending on whether the supplier is a manufacturer, regular dealer or distributor. The recipient makes that determination, not the prime and not us. Ask us about your specific scope and we will tell you plainly which parts we perform ourselves.
Held: DBE and ACDBE through the Georgia Unified Certification Program to 2 May 2027, MBE, SDB self-represented in SAM, SAM registration with CAGE 9JAV8 and UEI Z4WKS4UE8NJ6, and E-Verify authorization since July 2025. Not held and never represented as held: HUBZone and 8(a). We keep held and pursued strictly separate, because blurring them is how a prime ends up with a participation problem at award.
Yes, and subcontractor is the most common arrangement. Prime, subcontractor and teaming partner are all roles we take, and which one fits is agreed at the fit review rather than assumed. See teaming and joint pursuits.
The vendor packet contains the W-9, certificate of insurance, certification documents and the capability statement, and it goes out with our reply rather than after a chase. Tick the box on the fit review form and it comes with the response.
Recurring programs from a single property up to a portfolio, and project work from small mobilizations upward. The documented supply engagement on our record is a county public works contract running March 2025 to March 2026. If a scope is too large or outside what we self-perform, we say so at the walk rather than taking it and subcontracting the whole thing, which would not survive a commercially useful function review anyway.
Sources
DBE goal credit and the commercially useful function test: 49 CFR 26.55, How is DBE participation counted toward goals. Read from the eCFR 2026-08-30.
Page maintained by Thrare Contracting, a trading name of Rare Earth Ltd, 8735 Dunwoody Pl, Ste R, Atlanta, GA 30350. Certifications in full on credentials and compliance. Coverage on service area.
Tell us the property, the scopes, the timing, and the role you need us in. If it fits, we walk the property and come back with a written scope, a schedule and a number, at no cost to you for the walk. If it does not fit, we will tell you that instead of quoting it.
We aim to reply to every submission within one business day, from a person. Prefer to talk first? Call 678-748-3578.