Clay & Company » A Texas Commercial Real Estate Blog

On our Facebook page this week we posted about this article on Culturemap that summarizes Ryan Slattery’s proposal for the Astrodome. A graduate student at the University of Houston, he submitted the plans for his School of Architecture Master’s Thesis.

His plan is to reduce the Astrodome to its metal frame and create green space beneath it for use for tailgating, the Livestock show or green space for sports. Even Mayor Parker mentioned its genius and tweeted about it.

According to KHOU, the public could end up voting on the fate of the Astrodome in November since all of the ideas would require a bond issue meaning voters will have their say. The last week in June the sports and convention corporation will present its ideas to the commissioner’s court.

Image from KHOU Astrodome Pinterest Page

Paul Bettencourt, CEO, Bettencourt Tax Advisors, shares the following:

Houston’s Industrial Sector, has seen an 11.8% drop to 5.2% in Vacancy Rates from Q311 to Q312, even though there were 26 projects (1.8 mill SF) completed in 3Q12 and 3.8 mill SF currently under construction.

The January 2013 edition of REDNews includes these notes & predictions from the Boyar Miller Breakfast Forum:

• Industrial supply is trailing demand

• 5.3%industrialvacancyoverall

• Katy is next boom area for industrial demand

• Houston is finally recognized as an important international gateway 
city, and institutional investors “need” to have us in their portfolios

• Cap rates for investment sales in the industrial arena are in 
the 6-8.5% range

• Baytown area/Ameriport is getting a lot of attention

• Lots of design/build coming out of the ground fast to meet 
immediate demand

• Energy industry is driving industrial expansion-also foreign trade 
and healthcare

• Panama Canal expansion lagging-maybe be a year late opening-count 
on 2015

By Shaina Zucker for the Houston Business Journal

Total contract value for planned construction projects last month picked up in Houston, but continued to drop statewide.

In the Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area, nonresidential contract value in June 2012 dropped 17 percent to $318.96 million from the same time a year ago, data from the research and analytics unit of McGraw-Hill Construction show. Meanwhile, residential rose 28 percent to $552.998 million from June 2011 to the same month in 2012, and the total contract value was up 7 percent.

Statewide, nonresidential contract value dropped 19 percent to $1.37 billion last month, compared to the same time in the previous year. However, residential saw a 25 percent gain as it rose to $11.03 billion.

Year-to-date, total contract value in the Houston area is up 15 percent from the same six-month period last year, while total contract value statewide is down 7 percent.

See full article here.

via the San Antonio Business Journal

The good news is that employment numbers for San Antonio’s construction industry are continuing to rise.

The bad news is that fewer cities are enjoying the same fortune as San Antonio.

In its latest survey of the country’s 337 largest metros, the Arlington, Va.-based Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) found that between March 2011 and March 2012, employment increased in 155 of those cities.

Among the cities included in that figure: The San Antonio/New Braunfels metro — which saw a 7 percent increase in construction employment on a year-over-year basis. To date, the local construction industry is reporting a total of 44,300 employees — up 2,900 from the 41,400 employees reported at the end of March 2011, per the latest AGC report.

The San Antonio/New Braunfels metro area was also among the cities that posted construction employment gains in January and February as well.

Unfortunately, the number of cities actually posting job growth is shrinking.

In January, out of the total 337 metros tracked by AGC, 169 of those cities saw construction employment figures rise. In February, the number was up slightly — with 171 metros seeing employment gains.

Now in March, only 155 of the country’s largest metro areas were reporting construction employment gains.

Another 134 metros reported employment declines; 48 cities reported no change, the AGC analysis states.

Other Texas metros among the 155 that saw construction employment numbers rise between March 2011 and March 2012 are the the Dallas/Plano/Irving metro area, which saw a 1 percent increase in construction employment; and the Fort Worth/Arlington metro area, which reported a 5 percent gain in construction employment.

Meanwhile, the Houston/Sugar Land/Baytown metro area was among the 134 that saw employment figures drop — 1 percent between March 2011 and March 2012.

The Austin/Round Rock/San Marcos region was among 48 metro areas that saw no change in construction employment, AGC states.

Market uncertainty, AGC officials say, continues to hamstring construction-employment growth in many markets. Washington’s failure to approve long-term investment in highway and transportation improvements, for example, is putting the hurt on construction firms that work on these public infrastructure projects, according to the AGC.

“When it comes to politicians talking about the need to support private-sector job creation, construction firms could benefit from less rhetoric and more action,” says Stephen E. Sandherr, chief executive officer for the AGC. “… It would be helpful if Congress and the administration would instead help end much of the uncertainty holding back the industry.”

Source

Kirksey Architecture recently released its Annual Construction Cost Update for 2012 compiled by statistics from over 20 area construction firms.

Their findings show a slight increase in per square foot construction costs for each category including: one-story flex office buildings, low-rise office buildings, mid-rise office buildings, high-rise office buildings, medical office buildings, and parking structures. Commercial tenant improvements for a typical 25,000-square-foot, full floor office buildout are $27 to $45 per square foot, up $2 per square foot since 2011.

The report says, “construction costs have stabilized at a low point over the past year and have started to move upward while a few material costs and transportation costs have risen.”

Competitive construction costs and low interest rates make now a favorable time to build.

See the specific costs for each category and the full report here.