April 2023 City Scoop: Denver
City Grill
Michael Gifford
President
AGC of Colorado
“Despite some troubling national headwinds, including higher interest rates, tight labor markets, material costs and availability, and now bank failures, the Denver-metro area construction industry remains strong,” Gifford says. “Positive factors include a long-term structural housing shortage driving demand, increased infrastructure investment from the national, state and local level, and continued demand for commercial construction projects.
“For 2023, both single and multifamily residential have understandably slowed with the rise in interest rates, but continued net in-migration to the region means that demand for residential remains strong in the long run,” he adds. “Denver also has a number of mega-developments in the works on the private side that will carry the industry forward, including River Mile, a multibillion-dollar project along the South Platte River and Fox Park in the Globeville neighborhood at 2.2 million square feet of mixed-use space in the project’s first phase. Contractors are seeing some project schedules get pushed out on the calendar and are watching that as we move forward as a region.”
