Dive Brief:
- After an analysis of Dodge Data & Analytics starts information, the New York Building Congress has found that the five-year period between 2013 and 2017 saw the highest value of starts — $150 billion — since the recession and that a growing amount of construction activity is happening in the outer boroughs — the Bronx, Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens.
- The most construction activity happened in 2015, which saw more than $41 billion in spending. The value of investment declined slightly in 2017 to $38 billion, $29 billion of which went to new construction and the rest to alterations and renovations. Between 2013 and 2017, residential spending increased by 56%, commercial by 69% and manufacturing by 113%.
- In the Bronx, construction starts exceeded $2 billion for three years in a row, while residential spending made up 50% of all construction activity between 2013 and 2017. Queens laid claim to the new terminal going up at LaGuardia Airport, which made up 54% of the borough's institutional construction spending in 2017. Ikea and Amazon have firmly planted themselves on Staten Island with new distribution facilities, and construction starts there have exceeded $1 billion for three of the past five years.
Dive Insight:
In the past year, there have been a few milestones reported in the New York City construction industry, in Manhattan as well as the boroughs. In January, using Cushman & Wakefield data, the Commercial Observer reported that 12.6 million square feet of new office space will become available in Manhattan during the next two years. This is the highest output in the office sector since the two-year period of 1985 and 1986.
Huge developments like Hudson Yards in Manhattan are driving office construction, and much of the new space is renting at 27.5% more than the going rate in existing buildings. The city's tech sector is also contributing to the growing amount of office space in Manhattan.
In April of last year, the New York Economic Development Corp. reported that public and private investors will sink $1.6 billion into the Staten Island waterfront during the next few years. The council said this represented a "never-before-seen level of investment in the area" and added that the borough's North Shore has garnered $600 million from the public sector and $1 billion from the private sector. This will generate more than 2,000 jobs, 4,000 residential units and 200,000 square feet of office space.
