Texas & Louisiana City Scoop: Construction Starts in Jackson
Value of new contracts expected to jump 18% in 2021 after climbing 4% last year
Strong gains in the residential and nonresidential sectors will more than offset weakness in non-building work.
City Grill
Ryan Springer
Vice President and Division Manager
Brasfield & Gorrie
While construction in the Jackson metro area is fairly flat, the city is centrally located within three hours of Memphis; Birmingham, Ala.; New Orleans; and the Gulf Coast. Thus Jackson contractors are able to pursue work throughout Mississippi and neighboring states, Springer says.
“Currently, we’re seeing a rise in institutional work,” he adds. “Several of the state’s higher education institutions will begin large projects in the next 12 months. Some of these projects were planned to start in 2020 but were put on hold due to COVID-19. Several others are in planning now, with anticipated start dates in the next 24 to 48 months.”
The state faces a shortage of warehouse and manufacturing facilities, and with e-commerce booming amid the COVID-19 pandemic, “construction on these projects is gearing up in the northeast Mississippi market in particular,” Springer says.
Health care construction in Mississippi has been fairly slow over the last several years, but projects are gaining traction in the planning phase, he says. “Hopefully that means they will be shovel ready in the next 12 to 36 months.”
