Top Southeast Starts Reflect a Rejuvenated Residential Market

While Miami's condo boom made its presence known on this year's ranking, much of the remainder of the list reflects building trends of the past few years, with public-sector projects and energy contracts prominent.

Two power projects sit atop this year's ranking. South Carolina's nuclear plant project in Jenkinsville has the top spot, with Florida Power & Light's Riviera Beach modernization right behind it.

Additionally, the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT) once again generated several projects for the Top Starts ranking. Most notable was the $1.3-billion SunRail commuter rail project, which will cross four counties in the Central Florida area. The project provoked lively debate, and was even temporarily halted while Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) considered its merits.

When the project finally kicked off in January of 2012, state Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad said it was citizens' "grassroots support [that] made SunRail a reality."

In all, roughly $1.8 billion worth of FDOT projects are included on this year's ranking.

Additionally, major industrial projects, which have been included in past Top Starts rankings in recent years, again showed up. A Continental Tire plant in South Carolina and a Caterpillar manufacturing center in Georgia combine for a collective project cost total of $600 million.

This year's ranking also indicates some possible rejuvenation in other sectors. For instance, the start of the $1-billion Buckhead Atlanta development by Balfour Beatty Construction marks one of the biggest private-sector projects in the city in several years.

The List

The Top Starts ranking includes the Southeast's 25 largest projects—by total project cost—that started construction during 2012 within the states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. ENR Southeast used two primary sources to create this year's list: a survey form that Southeast firms could use to report their largest starts of last year and McGraw-Hill Construction's Dodge database.

Editors also researched and verified project start information from other sources, such as transportation agency websites and previous reporting by ENR and ENR Southeast.

Scott Judy is Deputy Editor for Regions, and editor of ENR Southeast, one of Engineering News-Record's 10 Regional publications. His roughly 27 years as a construction journalist began with an 11-year stint covering Midwest construction projects. In 2000, Judy helped launch the publication now known as ENR Southeast. He often delves into controversial aspects of the construction industry such as bankruptcies and fatal accidents, and wishes he would never have to cover another accident but suspects that he might.