Last week, I had breakfast with Ken Simonson, chief economist with the Associated General Contractors of America. While we see a good bit of positive news, it was interesting to listen to his national perspective, hearing the facts and the trends as he sees them. Construction spending totaled about $854 billion in 2012, a 10% [Read More]
Immigration Reform: A Trip to the White House
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with several senior advisors to the National Economic Council in Washington DC. Our “Gang of Nine” business leaders from the South included people involved in construction, agriculture and the food industry. We were invited to the Capital to discuss immigration reform. Interestingly, we all found fairly common ground. After [Read More]
What’s Ahead for Commercial Real Estate From an Investment Veteran
Retirement is a strange word to me, as it seems few people ever really stop working. Perhaps we just shift our interests a bit. Last week, I was talking with the recently “retired” Mike Prior, who formerly managed a mortgage loan investment portfolio of $5-6 billion for a major life insurance company. Mike now offices in our quiet [Read More]
Takeaways from the C-Suite: ICSC Open Air
“If you dislike change, you’re going to dislike irrelevance even more,” General Eric Shinseki, former Chief of Staff of the Army. To me, this quote sums up my takeaways from the OAC conference I attended this week. The conference limits itself to 400 attendees, mainly from the C suites and upper management of the country’s [Read More]
Tilt Wall vs Masonry Construction
Last year, we constructed more buildings using tilt wall construction as compared to years past. I started to investigate. While sometimes there is very little cost difference, there’s the value in speed. Form liners are making tilt wall construction more effective and attractive in the architecture arena. There is still a place for both in our [Read More]
On the Radar: Construction in 2013 and Beyond
With 2013 only a few days away, it seems like everyone’s looking ahead. Here’s a snapshot of what we’re seeing going into next year. Fewer subcontractors and vendors. This is a direct result of the Recession. I can say with certainty that those who have survived are stronger. Pricing pressure. If the economy expands next [Read More]
GPR for Pre-Construction
We have been in the preconstruction phase of a brownfield project for about 18 months. In the process, we have been using a relatively new and still evolving set of technology tools, called ground penetrating radar (GPR). This geophysical method uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. Knowing what is underground is particularly important for the job [Read More]
Office Space: Your Place or Mine
Lately, there has been much talk about the future of office space–its size, shape and relevance. In this semi-post-recession time, where technology makes connectivity possible from almost anywhere, is a physical office still necessary? On Monday, I visited with the head of property development for a major national company and the topic came up. What [Read More]
BIM, Reaching Its Potential
We are just finishing our first total BIM designed project, a 2-story, 130,000 sf building. Our experience has taught us that BIM is: An excellent design tool. Using 3-D modeling allows the customer to understand the project much more efficiently than flat plans. A way to bridge communication gaps. Consultants, contractors, subcontractors and material vendors have one [Read More]
New Deep Foundation Systems: Spiralweld and DTH
Steel driven piles have been around since the early 1900s and continue to be used effectively. With steel piling, one uses HP steel shapes. HP is so named because, looking at the end of the steel shape, it is in the form of the letter H. P stands for pilings, hence the HP. These sections can [Read More]
