Our research at the granular level is about completed for 2016 data and it appears we underestimated the housing market a bit and had the non-residential market pretty close. For the latter, the final number for non-residential/commercial contracting in 2016 was $4.13 billion. That’s the highest number since Tall Timber (or the Pittsburgh Construction News before it) has tracked going back to 1995. In that number is about $1.9 billion for natural gas processing plants, the Tenaska combined cycle power plant and the Shell cracker progress. That leaves a lot less for the mainstream commercial construction industry.

Residential ended a bit higher than expected. Single-family detached home construction finished up more than expected, as did the apartment market (although the latter was off more than 10%). The final numbers are below:

2017 is shaping up to be a surprising year for higher ed construction. Overall the category is depressed compared to the volume of most of the past decades. PASSHE schools will again have about $65 million to share, leaving few significant projects. Private colleges are facing some real challenges too but those in the region have some nice projects in the hopper. Yesterday’s announcement from Robert Morris about its $50 million new convocation center/practice gym is one of a dozen or so throughout the footprint. PJ Dick will be building that project (although they are not one of the funders, as the PBT reported). There are plans for a new building at W & J; a $25 million STEM facility at Westminster; a new $15 million field house at Grove City; several new buildings at CMU (Tata Consulting, ANSYS and the planning for a new science building); and Pitt should be looking for its team for the $100 million new building at the Syria Mosque. That’s not bad for a segment in tough straits.