California City Scoop: Construction Starts in Riverside
Total construction starts expected to decline this year and hold steady in 2020
The institutional subsector is forecast to weaken sharply this year before rebounding in 2020.
City Grill
Thomas Riggle
President
TR Design Group, Architecture
“We have been blessed to have been consistently busy over the majority of the past nine years,” Riggle says. His firm, TR Design Group, Architecture, is active in multiple market sectors in Riverside, Calif., where the firm is headquartered. “Approximately 75% of our work is in the Riverside and Inland Empire area, and we are located in the heart of one of the fastest growing areas in the country.”
Riggle says the firm’s hottest markets— churches, commercial, residential and health care facilities—are driven by the low cost of financing, along with an influx of new residential units and the new businesses that follow current projects.
“Available parcels of land provide many opportunities in Riverside,” he says. “Additionally, the city of Riverside has attracted many businesses to the region, further spurring growth and development within the city.”
One sector in Riverside that isn’t gaining traction is big-box retail, Riggle says. Over the past couple of decades, he has watched this sector give way to online retailers. “This trend is changing the way new centers are designed and how now-vacant centers are redesigned,” he says.
