BEST TIME TO BUILD?
| If you can get the financing (yes, a big ?if?), now is the time to start construction, according to McGraw-Hill Construction's Bob Murray. He spoke yesterday at the the company's Outlook 2010 Executive Conference at the Mid-America Club in the Aonn Center. | |
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Low construction material prices and available tax incentives are key to this timing, and Bob foresees sustained job growth in the industry by mid-2010. He says construction starts had fallen below where they were at the start of the '91 recession, but he expects housing to kick back into full gear by mid-year and institutional projects to provide a buffer. Lenders are less frigid, with just 34% of surveyed lenders saying they were tightening (vs. 91% last year). While healthcare buoyed construction in 2008, he adds, the market for new hospitals is mostly saturated. | |
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Locally, housing starts were down significantly in 2009, from 51,500 in '05 to just 7,400 in '09, according to McGraw's Kim Kennedy. The sector is expected to grow by 38% in the coming year, but that won't nearly bring it back to original levels. She says losing the Olympics and a recent loss of conventions at McCormick has brought down hotel development as well. | |
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| Those lack of construction starts haven't sidelined Legat Architects'Alan Bombick and Wight's Bradley Paulsen. Alan is working on a new student center for Joliet JUCO; Bradley is working on renovating Naperville Central High, as well as schools in the Des Plaines. | |
