According to the FMI report, the need for building new spaces has slowed as e-commerce — while still a small but growing percentage of total sales — picks up the slack for new business. Additionally, engineers and contractors’ pricing continues to be challenged as building owners desire more green construction methods.
Commercial building loans and their supporting activity are edging toward pre-recession levels. As of mid-year 2013, U.S. banks had issued just short of $1 trillion dollars in commercial real-estate loans, up almost 4% from a year earlier, according to official sources.
The design and construction of the Temecula Valley Hospital in Temecula, Calif., raises the bar for efficient, integrated delivery of health-care facilities. With a design and construction team made up of seven partners that signed a single integrated form of agreement, the five-story, 178,000-sq.-ft. hospital was completed from the ground-up for $157 million.
While much of America’s future economic dynamism has been riveted on the overdue upgrading of the nation’s infrastructure (pipelines, bridges, dams, railroads and highways), little has been heard lately regarding commercial and industrial construction.