Mega-Project Activity Off to Strong Start in Q1
If 2017’s first three months are an accurate indication of the number of construction projects breaking ground or on the drawing boards, we could be in for quite a year.
Not that it should be a surprise, as many construction economists forecasted robust nonresidential construction activity and the AIA Consensus Construction Forecast pegging total nonresidential growth at 5.6%. Some forecasters, like Dodge Data Analytics, see even better growth. Dodge’s forecast came in at 8.3% for total nonresidential construction growth and a 14.4% boost in the office construction market. EM’s editors were impressed not only by the size and the number of megaprojects being planned, but also the diversity of projects, which included imaginative downtown mixed-use projects; billions of dollars in planned spending on yet another round of colossal oil & gas facilities on the Gulf Coast and in Texas; hundreds of millions of dollars in college campus construction; plenty of spending on auto plant expansion; wind farms and solar installations; and gas-fired power plants.
As you can see in the interactive map and table below showing the 50-plus construction projects that caught our eye, although the construction is widespread, billion-dollar pockets of activity exist in Texas and the Gulf Coast and the New York metro. The Big Apple is enjoying much-needed renovations of LaGuardia Airport and the Jacob Javits Convention Center, NYU University construction, the ongoing Hudson Yards project, and a renovation of South Street Seaport. The big news in Texas and the Gulf Coast was Exxon’s recent announcement that it would spend $20 billion on energy projects over the next 10 years, plans for a new oil refinery in the resurgent Permian Basin and billions of dollars of mixed used and hotel construction throughout the state – including more than 200 hotels now underway, according to a recent New York Times report.