For more than three decades, the Jets and Giants have been just as much siblings as rivals in football’s largest market – the older brother crashing at the younger brother’s Shea Stadium pad in Queens for the 1975 season while Giants Stadium was being built on New Jersey swampland, and the younger one then moving over in 1984 for an extended stay at the elder’s new home. And after both scouted options to build new digs – the Jets especially hoping to finally call one their own – they ended up choosing to bunk together again, but this time in
It wasn’t long ago that a listing of major healthcare projects in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region would have at least one big job on the campus of every single large medical institution in the region. Related Links: Back to "Serious But Stable" Today, the list is thinner, and designers and contractors are looking to win smaller projects from these same institutions and scouting their master planning efforts to see what’s on the horizon – and how long it will take to get there. Here’s a sampling of the dwindling list of major jobs that are still ongoing, and a
The New York regional construction market’s dark journey since late 2008 has had its few bright spots – K-12 schools, higher education, massive ongoing transportation jobs – but few seemed as brilliant as healthcare. The vital signs were strong, with big projects churning along and expectations that the demographics of aging Baby Boomers and a growing population would keep the market humming. But beneath the veneer of vigor, multiple maladies have set upon the healthcare market, altering its short-term prospects and clouding its long-term outlook. And it all happened quickly, with economic pressures and the healthcare reform debate colliding, says
Related Links: Back to "Serious But Stable" Plenty of industry associations have spent their time in the past two years lamenting the sad state of affairs in the construction world, but the New York Building Congress didn’t start up its new healthcare committee this year with hand-wringing in mind. The new panel has already hosted four events with prominent speakers outlining the outlook for the healthcare market and providing a forum for discussing future trends, says Andrew Holwack, vice president at NYBC and the committee’s staff liaison. He says the group hasn’t ventured in the policy arena yet. “We’re serving
A year ago, signs of the construction market’s collapse were as clear as a crisp autumn day – backlogs were drying up, revenues were swept away, sputtering projects went dormant, and new work was nowhere on the bare landscape.
A year ago, signs of the construction market’s collapse were as clear as a crisp autumn day – backlogs were drying up, revenues were swept away, sputtering projects went dormant, and new work was nowhere on the bare landscape. And in the midst of that chill in November 2009, Structure Tone, a New York contractor with a $3 billion book, jumped on an acquisition of L.F. Driscoll, a Philadelphia market leader with $650 million in work. Most market observers say the construction sector’s swoon actually opened a prime season of mergers and acquisitions, a time for strong firms to not
In the wasteland of the New York region’s slumping construction market, K-12 public schools were the oasis sustaining contractors, designers, and others as work dried up elsewhere. “Thank God for the schools,” says Tom Rogér, vice president for Gilbane Building. “It maintained some level of consistent activity through the recession.” The plodding finance process for school construction had set up several years’ worth of projects as the recession deepened. “Last year, there was still a significant amount of new construction going on, because those were projects approved three years ago,” Rogér adds. But the downturn’s ripples have begun lapping against
In a roaring development cycle, size is an edge. The construction company with a monster lineup of staff, resources, equipment, and experience nearly always has a jump snaring attractive projects – benefiting from economies of scale and fatter profit potential. Smaller players generally have to find niches and exploit them rather than compete against larger contractors. Photo: BKSK Architects ICS Builders recently broke ground for the new $4.1 million Community of the Holy Spirit building in Manhattan. Photo: Lauren Mancuso A $30-million, 176,000-sq-ft expansion and renovation project for the Ward Melville High School in East Setauket, N.Y., includes a new
As construction managers build new strategies – or otherwise scramble to respond to the development market slowdown – their moves often have significant repercussions for subcontractors. Related Links: Playing Small Ball Among the prime concerns for subcontractors are the dirt-cheap rates that some general contractors and construction managers are bidding for new work. That in turn has surety companies that bond subcontractors in similar distress, says Jay Price, executive v.p. of business development for the Conti Group, a contractor based in South Plainfield, N.J. “[Surety companies] are very nervous that the subcontractor default rates are going to be skyrocketing because
One of the harshest construction markets in decades is reminding contractors why it’s great to be a specialist, but even better to have many specialties. Contractors across the New York region are reaching into new markets to find business, but they’re taking many different paths. Related Links: Fit for Survival Crystal Ball Blues For Structure Tone, a decision to pursue work in the health care sector started several years ago, says Robert Mullen, the CEO. To establish a foothold, the $2 billion construction manager started modestly. “We were able to get some small projects with major health care institutions just