Data Centers Still Dominate Construction Pipeline But Project Mix is Diversifying

While construction activity has slowed in the past few months, Electrical Marketing was still able to track down some sizeable projects. As has been the case for the past few years, data centers are the most numerous and amongst the largest mega-projects in the pipeline (see chart at bottom of page) and remain one of the largest construction segments in the U.S. Census Dept.’s Construction Spending data, through Oct. 2025, with $42,479 million in construction put-in-place, a +18.5% increase over Oct. 2024.

It’s tough to fathom the size of some of these facilities. In Nov. 2025, Amazon announced plans to build a $15-billion, 2.4-billion gigawatt campus in northern Indiana. There’s a dizzying array of gigantic data centers in the pipeline, and in the past few months, EM's editors found  information about at least six new projects projected to hit $1 billion in total contract value.

There’s plenty of other interesting types of projects now underway or in the planning stage. While new office construction is generally limping along at a slow pace for all the obvious reasons related to remote officing, New York has two big-time office towers in the pipeline. Related Companies & Oxford Properties are building a $1.6-billion office tower for Deloitte in the Hudson Yards neighborhood across the street from the Jacob Javits Convention Center, and BXP has a $2-billion, 930,000-sq-ft office tower underway in midtown Manhattan near Grand Central Station.

Two interesting project of note  on  the East Coast  that recently broke ground are Micron’s on-again, off-again $100-billion megafab semiconductor plant in upstate New York, and the $3.5-billion Newark Airport AirTran replacement project. Across the country, SoCal contractors are busy with the $1.9-billion expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center; the $1.8-billion LAX terminal renovation; and the $195-million Jamison conversion of former Arco tower into multi-family units that recently secured financing.
Some other interesting projects now in the construction pipeline include Salt Lake City's $3.5-billion, 1.3-million-sq-ft Power District mixed-use project that broke ground in Oct. 2025; Eli Lilly's $1.7-billion pharmaceutical manufacturing facility now underway in Lebanon, IN; Denver  International Airport's $1.6-billion Great Hall project and the $3-billion Armory Innovation District recently announced in St. Louis, MO.

According to a report at www.stlpr.org, this mixed-use project in midtown St. Louis proposed by a group of developers including Contour, TeraWatt, THO Investments, Steadfast City, ARCO and Lewis Rice would include office space in the city's historic Armory building and a data center in the nearby Macy's/Famous Barr warehouse. The www.stlpro.org post said the project will create 200 permanent jobs and 1,000-plus construction jobs.