While not as slow as other places in the country, Houston and East Texas contractors are seeing a decline in new private projects.
“Construction activity in East Texas is pretty much a refl ection of what’s happening in the rest of the state,” says Raleigh Roussell, president and CEO of TEXO in Dallas, which represents East Texas. “This area has been growing and had a nice spurt with the oil resurgence, but I think it has slowed like everything else.”
However, there are still projects to bid on, says Jerry Nevlud, president CEO of the Houston Chapter of the Associated General Contractors. But “there are a lot of projects on hold, waiting to be released,” he adds. “It has to do with the credit market.”
Bill Scott, division president of Linbeck in Houston, calls Houston an interesting market.
“We now know we are not immune from national developments, but Houston is still significantly below national unemployment,” says Scott, cautioning that it will likely go up to 9%. “We are experiencing a greater swing than we anticipated earlier in the year. We are seeing fewer opportunities, and the major institutional entities that have put projects on hold are a little surprising.”