Top Contractors
New York/New England 2023 Top Contractors: Project Diversification Sustains Firms
Ranked at No. 7 on the ENR New England Top Contractors list, Dimeo Construction Co. built a 400-seat multipurpose proscenium theater at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., that serves as a principal venue for music, theater and dance performances.
Photo by Iwan Baan, courtesy of Dimeo Construction
The Top 50 firms in New York and New Jersey reported revenue of $27.3 billion in 2022, a 7.1% increase from last year, when the top 50 total was $25.5 billion. On the 2020 survey, the top 50 companies in New York and New Jersey reported about $27.1 billion in total revenue from the previous year.
LeChase Construction Services, ranked at No. 10 among ENR New York top contractors this year, served as construction manager at-risk for the Strong National Museum of Play’s expansion in Rochester, N.Y.
Photo courtesy LeChase Construction Services LLC
Firms participating in last year’s New England survey surpassed pre-pandemic revenue levels for 2021, and only saw slim growth this year in 2022 revenue totals. The 34 firms ranked this year logged $15.51 billion in revenue, just a 0.19% increase from last year’s survey when the top 34 firms working in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont reported about $15.48 billion in total 2021 revenue. That was up 27% compared with the $12.2 billion the same number of firms reported on the previous year’s ranking. The 2020 New England ranking, based on 2019 data, recorded the top 35 firms with $12.4 billion in revenue.
New Big Apple
For the top 10 firms on this year’s New York ranking, total revenue of $18.24 billion was up 10.6% from last year, when the top 10 reported $16.49 billion in combined 2021 revenue.
The New York contractors ranking also is headed by a new company for the first time in six years as Structure Tone/Pavarini McGovern/LF Driscoll/RC Anderson passed AECOM Tishman | AECOM Hunt. Structure Tone’s $3.93 billion in revenue is up 28.5% from the $3.05 billion reported last year. AECOM’s $3.53 billion is 8.6% higher than last year’s $3.25 billion.
Mike Neary, Structure Tone president, credits relationships with repeat clients—which traditionally make up 80% of the firm’s business—for sustaining it since 2020 and positioning it for “a very successful year in 2022.”
Neary also points to a “conscious effort over the last few years to ensure that the size and type of our projects are diverse.” He points to “both large and small projects in all types of building sectors, from office fit-outs to hotel renovations, life sciences labs and data centers. That built-in diversity has undoubtedly provided us the backlog and continued work to weather any downturns in a particular sector.”
“My guess would be that growth, if it happens, will be minimal.”
—Frank L. Ciminelli II, Founder, President & CEO, Arc Building Partners
Structure Tone’s New York revenue total last year did not include an amount from subsidiary LF Driscoll, which for the 2023 ranking contributed about $114 million in regional health care work.
Overall, Structure Tone generated $154.26 million in the region’s health care market, which Neary says remains stable. “Health care is a basic human need and can’t be done from home,” he says.
The New York survey ranks Turner Construction at No. 3 for the second straight year. The firm reported $2.46 billion in revenue, a 15.5% decrease from the $2.91 billion it had last year.
Turner was also No. 3 in New England for the second straight year, while Suffolk Construction Co. and Consigli Construction once again finished first and second, respectively.
Suffolk finished 2022 with $2.66 billion in regional revenue, up 27.9% from the $2.01 billion the company reported last year. Consigli reported $2.08 billion, up 11.2% from $1.87 billion. Turner posted New England revenue of $1.68 billion, down 6.7% from $1.8 billion.
Arc Building Partners, ranked No. 38 on the ENR New York Top Contractors list, served as the owner’s representative on the $160-million Buffalo AKG Art Museum restoration and expansion.
Photo courtesy Arc Building Partners
Declining regional revenue from a national firm such as Turner may be seen as a bellwether indicator that the U.S. construction market is slowing.
But Jason Hart, chief operating officer of Stamford, Conn.-based A.P. Construction Co., is “hopeful that there will be corresponding betterments for cost of construction, availability of material and equipment and reduction in lead times.”
Hart—whose firm is ranked No. 26 on the New England survey with $93.3 million in revenue—says its clients maintain strong pipelines. “To the extent our market continues to sustain population and corporate growth, especially given our proximity to New York City, the projects will follow,” he says.
