Colorado Real Estate Journal - February 18, 2015

Denver ‘crane count’ up since August, according to RLB index

Rider Levett Bucknall recently launched its North American RLB Crane Index, a report that measures construction activity in major cities across the U.S. and predicts the health of the country’s construction industry.

The crane index tracks the number of fixed cranes on construction sites in major cities across North America. The biannual report surveys activity in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle. Additional cities, including Washington, D.C., will be added in future editions.

According to the first issue of the index, the residential market – specifically condominium and apartment developments – continues to lead the U.S. construction recovery. The commercial, health care, hospitality and education sectors also have started to see increases in crane activity.

Within the Denver market, the index shows approximately 92 percent of cranes are active on residential and mixed-use residential projects.

The report noted that, “Denver crane counts are up by one since August’s count of 12 and the construction market is being led by the residential and mixed-use/ residential market. All but one of the cranes in Denver are working on residential and mixed-use/ residential projects. Additionally, all of the sites included in the Denver crane count have been reuse of developed space. Currently, the city has about a 6.9 percent vacancy rate for rental property with slow-to-recover single-family developments. The construction of urban rental properties continues to rise.” “Unlike other forms of data, cranes are observable and recognizable icons of major construction activity. Therefore, they are an extremely useful measure of the changing pace of the construction industry,” stated Julian Anderson, president of Rider Levett Bucknall North America.

Rider Levett Bucknall’s local offices gather data and information for the index via surveys and other proprietary collection methods, including physically counting all fixed cranes appearing on each city’s skyline. This count is performed twice yearly and provides the baseline data for the index.

For the inaugural North American edition, crane counts were taken in each city on Aug. 1, 2014 (baseline count), and again on Nov. 1, 2014.

“Our findings indicate that residential developments are driving growth across the U.S.,” added Anderson. “We expect that this growth – which includes redevelopment, renovation and expansion projects – will continue to increase throughout 2015.”