Dallas-Fort Worth is bucking the rest of the United States when it comes to investment in new construction, with North Texas seeing a 7 percent gain year-over-year in development costs for a total of nearly $10.7 billion of construction underway.
“When you look across the rest of the United States, Dallas is looking pretty good right now,” Kim Kennedy, manager of forecasting for New York-based Dodge Data & Analytics, told the Dallas Business Journal.
“The rest of the country is down 7 percent, but when you combine non-residential and residential construction in Dallas, it’s up 7 percent,” Kennedy added.
That’s because there are more larger projects advancing in the region with 13 in the first seven months of 2016 compared with seven for that same time period last year. Large projects are defined as developments with a construction value of $50 million or more.
North Texas also has a mix of projects ranging from corporate campuses to urban mixed-use development to health facilities. Kennedy said that diversity of projects also helps give the region a boost in terms of overall gains.
These numbers also show Dallas-Fort Worth is doing well compared with the rest of the country, which appears to be softening so far this year, she said.
“The United States has had a softer economy in the first two quarters of 2016 and seem to be pulling back in overall construction,” Kennedy told me. “Developers are more nervous nationally in the first seven months of the year and that’s where the softness is coming from.”
Kennedy said she was hopeful this is a “temporary pause,” for the nation and construction will pick up this fall. In Dallas, it’s certainly going to be a good year for construction.
“We expect the year will continue to be a good one for Dallas, especially with numbers like these the first half of the year,” she said. “Dallas is growing.
Want a look at the top 13 construction projects advancing in North Texas based on the value of hard construction costs? Check out the attached slideshow.
