Washington, DC's $1.3B of medical construction led US

Dive Brief:

Contractors in the Washington, D.C., region broke ground on $1.3 billion of medical facility construction projects in 2018, the highest level of activity of any U.S. metro with one million or more people, according to the Daily Commercial News by ConstructConnect. The D.C. metropolitan statistical area (MSA) used in ConstructConnect’s analysis also includes portions of Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia.
After Washington, D.C., the MSAs that saw the most hospital, clinic, nursing and seniors’ home projects get underway were Cleveland ($1.1 billion); Phoenix ($883 million); Cincinnati ($858 million); Pittsburgh ($740 million); Atlanta ($736 million); Orlando, Florida ($736 million); Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida ($718 million; Minneapolis-St. Paul ($650 million); New York City ($627 million); Kansas City, Missouri ($624 million); Dallas-Fort Worth ($597 million) and Boston ($550 million).
If ConstructConnect had not limited its analysis to MSA’s with one million or more people, these metros’ medical construction activity would have landed them in the Top 25 as well: Lansing, Michigan ($453 million); Fresno, California ($398 million); Bloomington, Indiana ($393 million); Rochester, New York ($373 million); and Durham, North Carolina ($361 million).

Dive Insight:

The top 5 contractors by revenue in the healthcare construction industry, according to Building Design + Construction’s most recent rankings, are Turner Construction ($2.7 billion), McCarthy Holdings ($1.5 billion), Brasfield & Gorrie ($1.3 billion), Skanska USA ($966 million) and DPR Construction ($887 million). These construction companies, along with others who perform a significant amount of medical-related construction in the U.S., know the ins and outs of the specialty, which are largely dictated by the Facilities Guidelines Institute’s best practices. These guidelines have been incorporated into the healthcare construction regulations of 39 states and focus on everything from hospital room dimensions to working in sterile processing areas.

The $1 billion expansion of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston will likely bump that metro up the list, whenever the project gets underway. When the hospital has enough donor funding to begin, it will construct a 1-million-square-foot, 12-story building that will feature two parallel towers with 450 beds on the top six floors. The project will also include new cancer and heart centers, operating and exam rooms, imaging facilities, clinical support space, underground parking, retail and a restaurant. As part of the project, MassGeneral will also construct a seven-story campus services building.

Richmond, Virginia, is No. 21 on ConstructConnect’s list, but, as of January, the metro had more healthcare-related projects under construction or in the pipeline than it recorded in all of 2018 (although the latest figures also included medial offices). The area’s VCU Health System alone had $534 million of projects planned or underway, including a 16-story outpatient building, a 114-bed rehabilitation hospital and the 154,000-square-foot Virginia Commonwealth University College of Health Professions building.