The overall U.S. construction market has been turning around for the past year and a half, and large corporate owners are beginning to open up their checkbooks again and slowly ramp up their capital programs. But some of the large owners share the same worries as construction firms about the future of the construction industry and how it will impact their programs in the long term.
What the major corporate owners want is no secret. "I hear it every day from my bosses: They want their projects better, faster and cheaper," says Les Sturgeon, divisional vice president for Abbott Nutritionals International, a new division of Abbott Laboratories. But Sturgeon and many owners and owner groups see clouds on the horizon that will make demands for quicker and cheaper projects difficult.