Northwest Region Poised for Both Boom and Bust
Image Courtesy of Kemper Development Co.
400 Lincoln Square, an office, hotel and apartment tower in Bellevue, Wash., was the largest project to break ground in the region last year.
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While some parts of the Pacific Northwest are undergoing a boom of a magnitude rarely seen in the region, others may be heading for a bust of similar proportions. Just as growth in the tech sector has been good for Washington and Oregon, oil—or a lack of it—has proven very bad news indeed for Alaska.
If declines in Alaskan oil drilling have propelled the state down a rocky road, crashing oil prices have since sent it into free fall. "Conditions have devastated the state's budget," says Ken Simonson, chief economist with Arlington, Va.,-based Associated General Contractors of America.
To contend with a $3.5-billion state deficit, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker halted six significant energy and transportation projects in December. The fact that only a handful of Alaskan projects rank among the largest to break ground in the region last year provides a further indication of the state's troubled affairs.
Many top projects are located in Seattle and, to a lesser extent, Portland, Ore. "Those areas are performing very solidly in the nation's recovery, and Seattle in particular is home to a growing number of highly educated millennials attracted to the high-tech enterprises clustered there," says Anirban Basu, chief economist with Washington, D.C.-based Associated Builders and Contractors.
Portland, known as the Silicon Forest, tells a similar story. It is "one of the nation's most beautiful cities," says Basu. "Capital for construction projects just keeps pouring in."
To see a llst of the region's Top Project Starts, click here.
