Dive Brief:
- The Top 20 construction companies in New York increased their revenues by 14.3% from 2014 to 2015, according to Crain's New York.
- Gilbane Building Co. led the pack in revenue increases with a 171% bump in its year-over-year income, with Tutor Perini (71.7%) and Hunter Roberts Construction Group (47.5%) snagging the second and third spots.
- Family-operated Gilbane attributes its skyrocketing revenues to the addition of large commercial projects — such as the Staten Island New York Wheel, 55 Hudson Yards and the Brooklyn Navy Yard — to its stable of institutional work.
Dive Insight:
Tutor Perini, Tishman Construction and Turner were 2015's highest earners, all exceeding revenue of $2.5 billion, according to Crain's. Gilbane has a reported $1.1 billion worth of work underway but has drawn union criticism for using nonunion labor and subcontractors. Gilbane is reportedly just the latest of New York's large construction companies to rethink expensive union collective bargaining agreements.
Crain's added that New York construction employment is at a 40-year high, with a 6.4% increase expected through 2016. Construction activity in the city, according to the New York Building Congress, created 138,200 jobs in 2015, 65% of which went to plumbers and electricians. In addition, the NYBC found that average construction wages were $76,300 in 2015, but heavy and civil engineering workers scored the real payday with an average of $120,700, up from $111,200 in 2014.
Last month, the NYBC also reported that almost $40 billion in 2015 New York construction activity had generated $22 billion in additional spending and other output, resulting in a $61 billion economic boon for the city. This was a 7% increase from 2014's economic gains of $57 billion. The NYBC added that the $22 billion included $11.6 billion in construction-related spending and $10.4 billion in additional consumer spending.
Another surge in construction activity also took place within the educational facility construction sector in New York last year, with $3 billion worth of starts and renovations underway, an 83% increase from 2014. Dodge Data & Analytics revealed that New York more than tripled its construction spending on colleges and universities between 2014 to 2015 and increased spending four-fold for post-secondary schools between 2010 to 2014.