Construction Rescues the Economy

Friday’s report on first quarter GDP was well below economist’s forecasts but hardly a surprise or disappointment (not sure how those two things can be true but…). When you dig into the details you see that without construction spending, the economy would have actually contracted in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2016. The overall GDP growth number was 0.7 percent but big gains in residential construction (0.5 points) and non-residential investment (1.1 points) added 1.6 points to the growth. The rest of the economy dragged GDP down 0.9 points. Within the non-residential investment number, which includes all business investment, spending on non-residential construction was up 22.1 percent. That means that without construction, the non-residential investment number would have been flat or worse.

Today’s announcement on March construction showed that the first quarter of 2017 was up 4.9 percent over the first quarter of 2016. The $1.218 trillion in spending is the highest on record. The trends represented in the number were consistent with past months. Commercial construction was up 12.7 percent. Public construction was down 6.5 percent.

total us construction spending

St. Clair Hospital’s $75 million expansion and renovation project has gone out for CM proposals to PJ Dick, Mascaro, Massaro/Yates, MBM, Mosites, Rycon, and Volpatt. Pittsburgh Theological Seminary selected Jendoco Construction for precon services on its $10-12 million library project. Volpatt Construction landed the $2.35 million Victoria Hall SIM Lab for the University of Pittsburgh. Rycon Construction is about to start work on the first phase of the $2.8 million Assumption Hall renovation at Duquesne University. Bids are due May 4 for the 21,000-plus sq. ft. buildout for global diagnostics/life science company Perkin Elmer at 250 Industry Drive. Bids are being taken by Neyer, Rycon and Turner.
Pete Dozzi Memorial Service
The family of Peter C. Dozzi invites you to join them on Friday, May 5, 2017 at the Duquesne University Power Center (Charles J. Dougherty Ballroom) 600 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15282 for a memorial celebration and luncheon beginning at 11:00 a.m. Brief remarks will be presented at 12:30 p.m. Please confirm your attendance by email tociaotp@comcast.net

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