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January 21-February 3, 2015 — COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL — Page 29
Construction, Design & Engineering News
GH Phipps Construction
of Wyoming was awarded a
$13.88 million contract to con-
struct a new Tongue River Ele-
mentary School in Ranchester,
Wyoming.
The firm will break ground
in April on the school for the
Sheridan County School Dis-
trict with an expected comple-
tion in summer 2016.
Plan One Architects out of
Cody, Wyoming, designed the
building, located on land the
district acquired a decade ago.
The new elementary school
will be across the road from the
Tongue River Middle School.
The existing elementary school,
constructed in the late 1970s, is
overcrowded, prompting the
new construction. s
Plan One Architects
The new elementary school will be finished in summer 2016.
Rider Levett Bucknall, international
property and construction consul-
tant and an industry leader in cost
research, reported that the estimated
growth rate for U.S. construction is
expected to rise approximately 10
percent – nearly double the estimated
growth rate for 2014.
Strong commercial building and
residential markets are contributing
to this projected increase, according
to the firm’s Fourth Quarter 2014
USA Construction Cost Report.
The firm’s research indicated that
improved construction financing and
investment, along with stronger com-
mercial building and residential mar-
kets, are driving continued growth
within the industry.
According to the U.S. Department
of Commerce, construction put in
place during October was estimated
at a seasonally adjusted annual rate
of $950.9 billion, which is 0.4 percent
below the revised August estimate of
$955.2 billion. The September figure
is 2.9 percent above the September
2013 estimate of $924.2 billion. The
value of construction during the first
nine months of this year was $710.1
billion, 6.1 percent above the same
period in 2013.
The firm anticipates that commer-
cial and institutional buildings, single-
and multifamily housing, industrial
and manufacturing will most likely
show the largest growth over the next
12 months while public infrastructure
work could show more modest gains.
Rider Levett Bucknall tracks con-
struction costs in 12 major U.S. cit-
ies, including Denver. From July 1
and Oct. 1, 2014, the national aver-
age quarterly increase in construction
cost was 1.66 percent. Honolulu, Los
Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and San
Francisco all experienced significant
increases in excess of 2.1 percent for
the period. All other locations also
experienced gains, including Denver,
which saw an increase of 1.03 percent.
The quarterly increase in construction
cost was the largest since early 2008.
For much of 2014, the lack of skilled
labor created a strain on the construc-
tion industry in some regions, par-
ticularly in the oil boom states and in
cities such as New York and Hono-
lulu. Rider Levett Bucknall’s report
also notes that the continued lack of
available skilled construction work-
ers to support increased demand
within the industry, combined with
rising demand for materials, equip-
ment and industry professionals, will
continue to fuel rising construction
costs nationwide.
“While the estimated growth rate
of the U.S. construction industry for
2015 is encouraging news for the
nation’s economy, developers should
continue to plan for cost increases
even though the cost of fuel and com-
modities is currently under down-
ward pressure,” stated Julian Ander-
son, president of Rider Levett Buck-
nall North America.s
The Centennial state will continue to
grow as a center of green construction
expertise and ownership, according to
a recently released preview of green
building trends this year by the U.S.
Green Building Council’s Colorado
chapter.
“There is enormous support behind
green building in Colorado,” said Sha-
ron Alton, executive director, USGBC
Colorado. “People in both urban cen-
ters and rural communities want to
grow the state sustainably. This starts
with the spaces we build and reimag-
ine.
“As a panel of developers and owners
told us at our Commercial Real Estate
Forum, green buildings are becoming a
must-have for owners,” she continued.
The chapter noted that commercial
real estate brings together the public
and private sectors, as evidenced by
the opening of Denver’s Union Sta-
tion and the commitment to creating
partnerships between the private and
public sectors for the project.
Additionally, USGBC Colorado cred-
its Colorado’s commercial real estate
industry with successfully bridging the
gap between sectors to execute Union
Station and other green building proj-
ects, large and small.
“With many LEED-certified projects
in the Union Station neighborhood
coming to completion in 2015, it will be
apparent that green building and the
hottest neighborhood in the region are
not a coincidental combination,” said
Alton.
The chapter also predicts that “green
school” leaders will gain resources.
USGBC Colorado noted that the state’s
schools are under pressure as enroll-
ments grow and buildings age. Ahand-
ful of private and public programs in
the state support schools that wish to
renovate or build their facilities sus-
tainably. Many of these programs also
will increase in sophistication in 2015,
such as the Colorado Energy Office
bundling all of its programs in a new
energy savings for schools offering this
year while the Colorado Department
of Education will open a new Building
Excellent Schools Today Program grant
round with an expected $35 million to
$45 million of available funding.
Further, the chapter predicts that Col-
orado will continue to innovate.
“There’s no shortage of innovative,
exciting green building projects com-
pleted or in progress in Colorado right
now,” commented Alton. “That trend
won’t reverse anytime soon.”s
ʻPeople in both urban
centers and rural
communities want
to grow the state
sustainably. This starts
with the spaces we
build and reimagine.ʼ
– Sharon Alton, USGBC Colorado
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