Blog

Some Updates on the Market

While everyone is waiting to hear what contracting team was selected for the new Chevron offices (FYI, their previous decisions seemed to be made on Thursdays), a handful of other projects have moved forward.

Highmark will be interviewing Martini, Mascaro, PJ Dick and Rycon next week for the CMR contract at the $14 million Jefferson Regional Medical Center Ambulatory Surgery Center in Bethel Park. Indiana Hospital takes proposals next week from contractors for its $30 million vertical addition. On the list are Alexander, PJ Dick, Martini, Mascaro, Massaro, Quandel and Fiore. Gordon Food Services selected Whiting-Turner as construction mgr. for its 500,000 sq. ft. distribution center in Findlay Business Park. Burchick is confirming prices for the $15 million, 110,000 sq. ft.  Schenley Place office building in Oakland.

Mosites Construction was the successful bidder on the $18 million Luna Parking Deck job in Shadyside. The Lane Co. was the low bidder on the $39 million West Carson Street Viaduct job for PennDOT.

Legislation & Construction

The week before last the PA Senate passed a bill authorizing $1.4 billion in additional funding for highway and bridge construction in Pennsylvania’s 2013-2014 fiscal year, with the funding growing to an additional $2.5 billion in 2018. Although House leader Mike Turzai was initially opposed to the bill’s size and method of raising revenue, the PA House has put the legislation on the floor for discussion as part of the end of year legislative flurry.

This morning I sat next to one of the Governor’s aides at the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance partnership meetings. His opinion was that the Senate would move on passing the House’s plan for privatizing liquor and wine sales this week, an event that would trigger the House moving to pass a transportation bill of its own that could be reconciled with the Senate’s version so that the Governor would have something to sign by the end of the month.

The 2013-2014 budget that the House passed last week was by no means a boon to public construction. There are some economic development and business attraction elements that would produce future construction projects but even those are at risk with a shortfall still projected. Passage of a transportation bill – even if it is inadequate to solving the problem – would fix some of the growing problems in PA’s infrastructure and show that the Commonwealth does intend to keep commerce a high priority. Not coincidentally it would also result in 30,000-50,000 new jobs, depending on the magnitude of the funding. In a state with a failing system of bridge and roads (not to mention struggling public transit), the political courage to raise revenues and invest is critical to our economic future.

As an update to an earlier post, the list of firms competing for the CM at Risk contract for the $14 million Jefferson surgical center in Bethel Park includes dck, Graziano, A. Martini,  Mascaro, PJ Dick, Rycon, Whiting-Turner.

Wednesday’s Update

Perhaps it means nothing but the list of contractors prequalifying for the $80 Agricultural Sciences building at WVU is refreshingly short. The responses to the RFQ have not actually gone in yet so the list could further shrink but the attendees at the mandatory pre-proposal conference included only Mascaro, Massaro/Clark, PJ Dick, Turner, Walsh and Whiting-Turner. During the last few years a project that size drew a handful of national contractors to the table, so having a project involving only contractors with regional offices in Pittsburgh is a welcome change. Again, the list could be indicative of no shift in trend – the project’s size is a bit awkwardly in between large and small – but any relief from the hypercompetitive frenzy of 2009-2013 is a good thing.

WVU awarded the $2.6 million site prep package, which bid publicly earlier, to PJ Dick.

Hospitals are making the other news today. The $14 million surgical center that Highmark is building at the Jefferson Hospital medical center in Bethel Park is out for CM at Risk proposals. UPMC is doing scope reviews with the low bidders on its $20 million Luna Parking Garage. Last week Armstrong Hospital took similar proposals from AIM, A. Martini, Landau, Massaro, MBM and Rycon for its $5 million emergency dept. expansion.  Landau, Martini and Massaro have been short-listed for interviews.

On Thursday, Chevron is interviewing the Mascaro/Skanska and Massaro/Clark teams for the construction management of their new $250 million regional headquarters.

Friday’s News to Watch

Perhaps because it is the first week of June, this one was a fairly uneventful week for construction news – with one notable exception explored below.

The bigger projects on the market publicly-funded higher education jobs. At Indiana University, bids for the $5 million Dining Café and the $28 million Keith-Leonard Halls are bidding; the $12 million Becht Hall conversion at Clarion is now due on the 20th and Penn State put out the $40 million West Campus Steam Plant. On the private side of the market there are some sub packages out for the $73 million Gardens at Market Square from Turner and interviews are being conducted as part of the construction management selection for the $250 million Chevron office. Google made another splash in the new this week with the announcement that they will be adding another 50,000 square feet to their space at Bakery Square. A. Martini & Co. should be starting work on the space by July.

What was noteworthy this week was Wednesday’s passage of Senate Bill 1, the first salvo from the PA legislature in the effort to increase the funding for infrastructure construction. Following the recommendations of the governor’s Transportation Funding Advisory Commission (TFAC), the Senate used every revenue-creation measure in the 2011 TFAC report to add $1.4 billion to the 2013-2014 budget for bridge/highway work. Five years out, the Senate’s bill would add $2.5 billion to the transportation funding – $1.9 billion of which would go to bridge/highway construction. The biggest source of the funding – and the most controversial – is the lifting of the cap on the wholesale gas tax, which could add 28.5 cents to the price of gas by 2018.

It’s important to remember that TFAC’s conclusion was that it would take an immediate and sustained increase of $3.5 billion each year to catch up and maintain the decay on our state’s bridges and highways (this figure excludes all the infrastructure owned at the municipal level). It’s also worth noting that Gov. Corbett’s response to the TFAC report was to recommend roughly $1.6 billion in increased spending, so there’s quite a bridge to gap between the Senate’s bill and what will ultimately leave the PA House of Representatives. House majority leader Mike Turzai (Rep.) has softened his objections to the revenue sources being tapped in recent weeks, and the Senate’s near unanimous 45-5 vote will certainly get the attention of the House (even the dissent was a bi-partisan 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats). But don’t expect the House version to be anywhere near the Senate’s scale.

What is more likely is that the Senate’s action set the bar high in what will be a spirited political negotiation, with the privatization of the liquor stores as a bargaining chip. With the governor looking for less than three-fourths the increase that the Senate endorsed, the final piece of legislation will probably fall below $2 billion in additional revenue, with maybe half that in the 2013-2014 cycle.

Given that PennDOT’s 2013 lettings will be something over $1.5 billion, even the smallest increase being tossed about in Harrisburg will have a dramatic impact on the heavy and highway sector of the construction industry – and our roads.

Political bargains come much harder these days but with our neighboring states all putting accelerated infrastructure programs in place, PA will be rapidly losing ground in the perception of business conditions (an area in which the state does not exactly shine). What might ultimately win the day is the associated jobs created by the increased construction work. Estimates are that around 50,000 jobs will be created to meet the additional project load. That’s a lot of grateful voters.

Final Thought on Friday

The economic news this week has been fairly mixed for the U. S. economy. Consumer confidence soared in Tuesday’s report. Consumer sentiment tanked in today’s report (different survey – different surveyor). The best news was the Case Shiller index for April, which showed that home values had risen more than 10% over last year. That same day RealStats reported that home sales for April in Pittsburgh were up 24% +, with average values outpacing the median value.

Bear Construction is starting on a new 150,000 sq. ft. facility for Jerome Manufacturing at the Fayette Business Park in Georges Twp. near Springfield, PA. The Fay-Penn Economic Council says the project is a $9 million investment.

Pitt opened bids Thursday afternoon on the Phase 2B portion of the ongoing Benedum Hall modernization project. Bids came in at $24.3 million. The low bidders on the four prime contracts were: Volpatt Construction (general) at $7,639,000; McKamish (HVAC) at $10,225,000; Ruthrauff-Sauer (plumbing) at $1,495,000; and TJR Enterprises (electrical) at $4,984,000.

Highmark Medical Mall Moves Forward

With site work underway on the $80 million medical mall in Wexford, Highmark selected Massaro Corp. as the general construction contractor for the 173,000 square foot building. Limbach was selected for the mechanical. The bids from earlier in the month were over budget and a number of alternates were examined. In the end Highmark chose the company that was low bidder in the first place.

Work on the foundations should be underway by Mosites. With the building shell and MEP’s let, there will still be interior and specialty packages to follow from CM Astorino. Travelers along the Wexford Flats should see a building beginning to take shape by Labor Day.

Some New Projects in the Pipeline

With some of the high-profile projects that have or will bid in May/June – Highmark’s new $100 million Wexford Medical Mall, Chevron’s $250 million regional HQ, Turner Construction’s $60 million Gardens at Market Square – it would be natural to assume that the market will take a bit of a breather until after the July 4th holiday. That does not appear to be the case.

Prequalification is being done for the 360-unit Southpointe Town Center apartments, which will be developed by GMH Capital Partners in conjunction an office building and 2 parking garages. The total project should reach $60 million. The final approval of the Highmark/West Penn Allegheny deal will mean some relocation of executives running the new Allegheny Health Network, reportedly to 2 floors of the Alcoa Business Services Center. Major renovations to Highmark’s Penn Avenue Place offices are in the works.

On the subject of healthcare, remember that both the major hospital systems in the region have fiscal years that end June 30. WPAHS still has an enormous backlog of deferred maintenance and upgrades – at least $1 billion – needed to become competitive with UPMC facilities. And UPMC had several hundred million dollars in the pipeline that were shelved this winter. Neither has announced any sort of ramping up but July has historically meant new projects.

UPMC’s partnership with Altoona Hospital has produced a project in the early stages of planning. WTW Architects has been hired to design a $14 million, 100,000 sq. ft. outpatient facility in Altoona.

The Frick Museum made a splash in the local papers this morning with a story about their $15 million expansion, for which Loysen + Kreuthmeier is the local architect and Turner the construction manager.

A Little Hospital News

Most of the news coming out of the hospitals of late has been negative and the prospects for hospital construction have certainly been that way for several months one project moving ahead is the 100-space Luna Parking Deck in Shadyside for UPMC. The $18 million job is due June 6. UPMC has asked Mascaro, Massaro, Mosites, PJ Dick & Turner for bids. You can see details at the Builders Exchange http://www.pbe.org/ipin/ProjectDetail.asp?txtPID=2012-00D0. Highmark’s medical mall in Wexford is apparently over budget but there are efforts to VE the project so that construction can stay on schedule.

On a different front, there was an interesting panel discussion of financing conditions for commercial real estate at NAIOP’s monthly meeting this morning. The takeaway was that earnings pressures are pushing underwriting standards to be looser. Veteran lenders Jack Shelly of Dollar Bank and Claudia Steeb of HFF both expressed concern that lenders were beginning to ‘stretch’ to make deals happen – just like in 2006-2007. Given the underbuilding of 2009-2011, a swing to the loose credit side probably wouldn’t create the crash we experienced at the end of 2008 but few bankers thought we’d be talking about loose credit again in 2013.

A Couple of Follow-ups

The Cranberry Woods apartment project that is being developed by Trammell Crow is due on May 22.  If you forgot the details see the post “The Big Jobs Are Out There” from May 8.

The $7 million East Suburban YMCA job (posted April 26) received 7 bids but is over budget. The Y has asked Landau, Massaro and PJ Dick to look at revised documents/VE.