Friday, March 22, 2013

NYC construction spending hits 4-year high

Construction spending in the city topped $30 billion in 2012.

Construction spending in the city topped $30 billion last year for the first time since the bubble burst in 2008, according a report released Thursday by the New York Building Congress.

That spending totaled $30.6 billion in 2012, up 3.6% from $29.5 billion in 2011, and not far off the all-time high of $31.1 billion in 2007. Last year's gain was fueled largely by a rebound in residential building and a surge in government spending tied in part to Superstorm Sandy relief efforts. Last year's performance marked the second straight year of growth for the construction industry after a precipitous decline to $25.9 billion in 2010.

"It really is a stronger than anticipated market," Richard Anderson, president of the Building Congress, said. "If you look at it sector by sector, it's easy to see why."

Residential construction is booming again, and while it remains well below the peak levels of the last decade, it has recovered faster than expected, Mr. Anderson noted. In fact, residential construction jumped 56% last year, to $5.1 billion. In all 10,599 units of housing were built, up 19% from 2011.

Government spending has held strong at $15.5 billion, down only $100 million from 2011, and not far off the 2008 peak of $16.3 billion. The Building Congress attributes this strength to ongoing work on a number of huge government projects, like the Second Avenue subway and the World Trade Center PATH Hub, and post-Sandy rebuilding work.

Non-residential work, as a whole took some of the steam out of last year's activity. The volume of work in that sector, which includes office, institutional and industrial projects slipped 8.5%, to $9.8 billion. Even there, however, Mr. Anderson said there were bright spots. "Universities and hospitals continue to build, which has been very good for the institutional segment," he said.

The big drag last year was office construction, which Mr. Anderson blames on still weak job growth.

"We're not getting the jobs we need, and the jobs we are getting, they're taking up less space," Mr. Anderson said. Employers, trying to cut cost during the recession, shrunk not only their workforce but the amount of space they allocate to each staffer, by cramming more people into the same or even less space.

"The offices are ready to go, they're designed, whether it's Hudson Yards or the World Trade Center or on the avenues, but the leases just aren't there yet," Mr. Anderson said. "But they'll come."

Overall, the Building Congress remains optimistic and expects the construction market to continue to grow.

"We've got a lot of different things going on," he said.

Posted from iPhone

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130321/REAL_ESTATE/130329975?template=smartphone&X-IgnoreUserAgent=1

6 comments:

  1. DROP DEAD UNITY TEAM !

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    1. Biello, McInnus, Canavaugh, Tynzer, Shehee, Craperso, McWillaims, Wallase, are giving away the union to mobbed up contractors while construction is booming, what the hell is going on here?

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  2. Mike Billelo sold us out, with the help of Dennis Walsh: (Bilello is a longtime collaborator with Walsh; Walsh worked under Judge Conboy; Kenneth Conboy (former Judge involved in consent decree) is now attorney (Latham Watkins) for the UBC, & General President Douglas McCarron (childhood friend of Ron Tutor, head of Tutor Perini, GC for Hudson Yards Project-- the biggest construction project in the history of NYC.)

    They are all tied together. Someone please write an investigative article documenting their malignant conflict of interest, the corruption reaching up into the highest levels of government and the justice system, which continues to suck lifeblood from honest hardworking Carpenters, who break their bodies on the tools to just survive.

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    1. $30 BILLION IN CONSTRUCTION SPENDING IN 2012 AND THE WALL AND CEILING ASSOCIATION AND THE BUILDING CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION ARE CRYING BROKE. YEAH RIGHT!

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    2. here here. well said. brothers and sisters it is time to wake the fuck up. do not wait for someone else to do the dirty work for you. get involved in your union before these bastards steal all the monies for your pension, benefits,etc.what has been cut and from whom? the bosses are greedy rich bastards that are always crying poverty.BULLSHIT.do not fall for this vitriole.if the idiots in charge really cared we would have revisited every 6 months what is going on in the economy and negotiated accordingly.how many raises did we not receive? and at who's behest?it is time folks to get ours.we should be insisting on the restoration of our benefits. that is money that directly BENEFITS all. if you just take pay raises it benefits the IRS,for half of the pay raise goes to the govt. whereas if we put the monies into the benefit funds it benefits ALL.WE MUST GET OURS.DO NOT SUCCUMB TO THE RHETORIC.mccarron is sleeping with the enemy,THE GOVT.he has many lackeys to get er done,unless we show in large numbers that we care about our own futures.PLEASE BROTHERS AND SISTERS WAKE UP BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

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  3. So, for 2-Years we've heard nothing but Crocodile Tears from every Contactor Association, from RBNY & all the other so called experts like the AGC.

    BTEA mounted their 26-Point Subway Campaign to reduce wages by 25% - 40%, all the while they all knew the Economy & the entire Construction Sector was improving and making near record gains.

    $30.6 Billion in NYC is nothing to sneeze at and not every year will be a record year.

    So volume, spending & man-hours have all gone up while every party above has argued to the Court for 5-year contracts with drasticially reduced wages proffered in bad faith on a Federal Court.

    The Intenrational's attorney, Conboy, himself and ex-Federal Judge lies openly in court every time he is there, as does McCarron when he is in the chambers of the the judge, as do their attorneys of record, as does the USAO's office.

    To get away with the latest scam and the bad faith negotiations, they first had to insure that the DC elected a group of inept & very incompetent hacks who are prone to sucking up and kissing McCarrons ring.

    Time for all the traitors, hacks, liars, thieves, inept in house legal counsel EST & Officers to be charged for colluding with Godfather McCarron, the Mob, the racketeers & the corrupt Contractor Associations.

    You cannot run a near $5 billion dollar enterprise with functionlly illiterate assholes with zero business experience, especially when the DC, as a non-profit functions with no accountability, no productivity goals, no aspiration or desire to run profitably or smoothly. The DC Meetings are a dog & pony show to justify their do nothing, produce nothing jobs, nothing more, nothing less.

    Ref: the 500-word Essay exam...what a joke, worth reading again, if only for the laughs as to what a joke this Organization has become and who was deemed fit to lead & run the organization.

    Can you see McCarron reading candidate answers - Oh yeah, this one one right here, he's a dumb son of a bitch, he'll be a push over. Doug reaches for the Red Phone - yeah, hey slick, ya Ken that dope Bilello will do just fine. Did you read that shit he wrote (laughter.......................) Ok Doug, we'll make sure we get this clown in office....yeah, don't worry. I got the RO and that spineless nitwit at the US Attorneys office on board

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