Top Contractors See Southeast Contract Activity Heating Up

Building a Modern Home for the Hawkeye Aircraft — This year's survey respondents reported a rise in revenue of roughly $1 billion from residential work. At left, Suffolk Construction's The Manor: Lauderdale by the Sea project.

Photo Courtesy of Suffolk Construction

"All of our preconstruction departments in the Southeast region are at full throttle and have been for some time now," adds Dan Kaufman, regional president with JE Dunn Construction, Atlanta. The market looks strong enough, he adds, that the contractor has hired 45 employees over the last 90 days.

Also, there's less desperation to bidding than there was a few years ago, Kaufman says.

"The main difference that I see is that we are estimating more projects that are either already awarded to us or we are part of a much more select group chasing them," he says. "During the recession, we were chasing almost anything that moved. We can now be more selective and concentrate our efforts better. That is a combination of more opportunities and less desperate contractors."

The Southeast's largest state construction market, Florida, should continue to grow further in 2015 and into 2016, says Roger B. Kennedy Jr., president of Roger B. Kennedy Inc., Altamonte Springs.

"Florida—and the central Florida region, in particular—is experiencing significant increases in ground-up construction projects compared to a year ago," Kennedy notes.

Logically, with materials and labor availability tightening, specialty contractor pricing is increasing, and the challenge of jobsite staffing is only going to grow, all three agreed.

"Until now, the supply-versus-demand equation for workers has been manageable, but increases in project volume coupled with declining construction unemployment rates and an aging construction work force suggest we will experience significant labor availability issues in the relatively near future," says Brasfield & Gorrie's Stone.

How long project costs can keep rising before affecting project viability is a growing question, says JE Dunn's Kaufman.

"The big question is when will the increases in construction costs catch up with the demand and start to put projects on hold because they can't get into the owner's budget," he says. Kaufman estimates it could be another two years before that situation begins to play out.

About the Ranking

ENR Southeast's Top Contractors survey ranks firms based upon their 2014 revenue from the states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In addition to revenue, the main ranking includes other information about each firm, such as top markets and largest recent contracts across the region. Breakout lists rank firms based upon state and specialty market sector revenue.

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.