Non-residential construction has pushed the value of new building contracts awarded over the past twelve months to nearly $17 billion, the highest one-year total in Houston’s history.
McGraw Hill Construction reports non-residential building contracts awarded last month valued close to $4 billion, up 1000 percent compared to those awarded in April 2013.
Patrick Jankowski is vice president of research for the Greater Houston Partnership.
“That phenomena is being driven by all the construction that we’re seeing taking place in the chemical industry here on the Gulf Coast,” he said. “Whether it’s down in the Freeport area, whether it’s along the (Houston) Ship Channel, whether it’s in other parts of the region – just a phenomenal amount of chemical plant construction going on right now.”
But Jankowski says the boom in chemical plant construction is starving office and home construction of labor.
“In a typical office building, you get the job, you’re there for nine months to a year,” he said. “You get a job building a chemical plant, you’re going to be there three or four years. And so while the chemical construction is stealing from the office, the office is stealing from the residential, and the residential people don’t have any place to turn to find workers.”
Residential building contracts awarded in April were up just 15 percent compared to the same period last year.
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