ENR California has named the City of Los Angeles as its Owner of the Year for 2017. Each year, the magazine selects one owner or developer with active construction projects for the honor. With so much work going on throughout California and Hawaii, there's no shortage of innovative owners to choose from.

Rather than select a specific agency, the editors of ENR California have chosen the City of Los Angeles because of the city’s efforts to foster collaboration across departments. For example, the city is developing One Water LA 2040, which will provide a framework for collaboration among city departments, regional agencies and public stakeholders to integrate management of the city’s potable water, stormwater, wastewater, recycled water and groundwater resources. Once finalized, One Water will encompass $10 billion to $20 billion in water-related projects that provide multiple benefits to the public. The program stems from the Sustainable City pLAn, issued by Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2015, which calls for the city to source a majority of its water locally by 2035, among other goals. Currently, L.A. imports 85% of its water from other sources, including the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and the Colorado River. The sustainability plan also tasked the city with reducing average per capita water use by 20% by 2017, a goal the city already has met.

Other initiatives include billions of dollars of investment in ports and Los Angeles International Airport; overhauling the problematic LADWP billing system; the Zero Waste LA program to reduce landfill disposal by 1,000,000 tons per year by 2025 and invest $200 million in solid resources infrastructure; and a $120-billion transit bond that residents of L.A. passed overwhelmingly in November’s election.

You can read more about the City of Los Angeles and its projects in the April edition of ENR California. 

That issue will also feature a ranking of the biggest projects to break ground during 2016. The list will include 30 (or more) of the largest starts in California and Hawaii. 

These top construction starts total tens of billions of dollars in construction activity. All of these projects are valued at more than $250 million. 

The project starts are listed alphabetically below. Be sure to read the April edition to learn where each of these projects rank, and to find out additional information such as construction costs and project teams. The Top Starts section will also feature interviews with key members from some of the project teams.

The following list is preliminary, and is subject to change as additional information becomes available prior to publication of the ranking. Think we've missed a project over $250 million that began construction in 2016? Please let us know in the comments field below. Note a project start is defined as the beginning of construction activity on the job site, as opposed to just the start of pre-construction or a formal ground-breaking ceremony. 

Top 2016 Starts in California and Hawaii

1120 S Grand South Park Phase 2

200 MW Tule Wind Power Project

Ae'o at Ward Village Condominiums

Beverly Center Renovation

California Flats Solar Power Facility

California High-Speed Rail Construction Package 4

Century Plaza Redevelopment

Chevron Richmond Refinery Modernization

Disneyland Star Wars Land

EchoWater Biological Nutrient Removal/Primary Effluent Pumping Station

Five Lagunas Residential Complex

Four Seasons Resort & Residences

Great Park Sports Complex

Honolulu Airport Consolidated Car Rental Facility

I-5 North Coast Express Lanes Project

Kahului Airport Consolidated Car Rental Facility

LLUMC Campus Transformation Project

Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park

Marin General Hospital Replacement

Mexican Museum and Residential Tower

Mid-Coast Corridor Transit Project (MCCTP)

New Long Beach Civic Center

Onni Residential Tower

Pechanga Resort & Casino Expansion

San Francisco International Airport Terminal 1 Boarding Area B Reconstruction

San Francisco International Airport Terminal 1 Center Renovation

Santa Clara Square Apartments

Spring Street Towers

Stanford ChEM-H and Neurosciences Institute Building

Transbay 8