In addition to its subcontracting business, W&M manages 20 million sq ft of commercial real estate. “As a landlord we are seeing general contractors anxious to bid our projects, particularly in Manhattan,” Durels says. “We are seeing numbers drop anywhere from 18 to 22%.”

GREENBERGER

But Durels cautions that one of the dangers in this market is that subcontractors are getting too aggressive. “We are making sure that we hire stable, quality firms,” he says. “This is something that we constantly have to monitor and control.”

The composition of firms bidding on projects is changing as well. Contractors that normally work on private-sector projects, hardest hit by the downturn, are now looking to the public sector for work, says Mike Cobelli, executive vice president of Skanska USA Civil Northeast, New York.

DURELS

Tim Casey, regional manager, Rifenburg Construction, Troy, N.Y., is seeing a similar trend. “Contractors that might be strictly attached to site jobs, like housing developments or commercial work, are now looking to gain work in the heavy highway sector,” he says.

At the SCA, Greenberger used to see the same group of contractors bidding on work repeatedly. “Now we are seeing more participation and some of the larger firms coming back to bid on projects, not just at the subcontractor level but also the general contractor level,” she says.

Larger firms that typically work on new building projects are also turning up on bid sheets for interior jobs, says Mark Varian, president, John Gallin & Sons, New York. “This is what we see every time we go through a period like this. Likewise, some names we have never heard of before, whether they are new or never were in our arena, are showing up on bid lists.”

COBELLI

NYS DOT tracked 32 new bidders on its projects as of June. Gee attributes the increase, in part, to the stimulus program, which is focused on jobs that get people back to work quickly.

“We put out numerous jobs that we could design quickly and projects that we had in the pipeline,” he says. These tended to be smaller projects, either under $1 million or in the $1 million-$3 million range.

“I think those jobs attracted bidders that normally work on municipal contracts, not large construction projects,” Gee says. “We have not analyzed all the data yet, but we think the new bidders are probably smaller firms that are now able to bid as prime contractors.” He added that the department has made a big effort to encourage the minority community to bid on its projects.

Rifenberg, which is typically one of the lower bidders on highway projects, is now finding that it is in the back of the pack when bidding on the smaller resurfacing projects. Casey speculates that some of the smaller firms may be severely cutting their profit margins or even be working at cost in order to attain work.

“They are just trying to hold on until the times get better,” he says.

VARIAN

Larger and more highway jobs will appear in the pipeline as states ramp up their stimulus spending. Prior to receiving stimulus funding, NYS DOT’s budget for its core program was reduced to $1.6 billion. Now the department will receive more than $1 billion extra in stimulus funding. “We almost have an extra year of funding,” Gee says.

For owners that can obtain project funding, the recession has a silver lining. W&M was awarded a bid for a school project in Fairfield, Conn., last year. “As we purchase this job, I think they are going to see prices come down significantly from what we had budgeted earlier,” Durels says. “Now is an excellent time to be bidding work.”

Greenberger says she is pleased to see the participation rates rise and bidding become more competitive. “It means we can do more projects,” she adds.