Aug 5 2010
New York City's education sector has become an increasingly important market for the construction industry, according to the New York Building Congress, a nonprofit group that represents the construction industry.
Elementary and secondary schools, as well as higher education institutions, accounted for 56% of the value of all institutional construction starts between May 2008 and April of this year, according to a report released by the group Monday.
The Building Congress points out that much of the surge is due to the work of the New York City School Construction Authority, which initiated $3.1 billion in public school projects over this period, compared with $174 million in starts by private elementary and secondary schools.
Private colleges and universities were responsible for $744 million in starts, while publicly-owned institutions of higher education, such as City University of New York, accounted for $540 million in starts.
Construction of new education facilities totaled $2.3 billion in value. This stands in direct contrast with the office sector, which has seen very little ground-up construction outside the World Trade Center in recent years. Recent major construction starts include CUNY's $381 million Advanced Research Center and $210 million Fiterman Hall, as well as Mount Sinai School of Medicine's $225 million research building.
"Columbia, NYU and Fordham have unveiled detailed campus expansion plans that will stretch for years," said Building Congress President Richard Anderson. "CUNY has more than $1 billion in projects in varying stages of development.
He added that the New York City Department of Education has commitments for $9 billion over the next four years to modernize its teaching facilities while adding 30,000 new seats in 56 buildings across all five boroughs.
Another $1.96 billion in construction starts was attributable to hospitals and other health care facilities. Private health care institutions accounted for $1.4 billion of that amount. Cultural institutions started another $764 million in construction projects followed by court facilities with $600 million.
All told, New York City's private and public institutions initiated $8.1 billion in total construction projects over a two year period ending in April 2010. The public sector was responsible for $4.87 billion, or 60%, of the value of these projects, while private sector owners accounted for $3.28 billion in project starts.
Source: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/