While some MidAtlantic specialty contractors may have felt they were finally coming off a rollercoaster ride of rising interest rates, supply chain disruptions and rising material and labor costs heading into 2024, regional revenues reported in the ENR MidAtlantic 2024 specialty contractor ranking could have justified this impression.
The top 10 companies in this year’s ranking, based on 2023 data, reported combined regional revenue of $2.21 billion, up 5.23% from $2.1 billion in 2022. The total of the 10 best last year represented a 16.02% increase over the $1.81 billion reported for 2022. the top 10 companies in the previous year’s ranking.
Tony Esteve, director of business development at Rosendin Electric, says the overall Mid-Atlantic market remains strong as “data center and mission-critical construction continues to offer the largest opportunities in the Atlantic Medium. The growth of AI, data analytics and the demand for cloud resources are driving the continued development of this sector.”
Graph by ENR
Rosendin ranked third in this year’s survey with $338.5 million in regional revenue, a 19.54 percent revenue decrease from last year, when the company topped the list with $420.68 million in revenue. Esteve notes that the region’s commercial office sector “remains depressed,” but adds that “we’ve seen opportunities to transition from commercial to residential use in this space.”
Esteve also says the need for electrical work is particularly high in the region “as the demand for skilled tradesmen and project leadership, foremen and project managers, outstrips the supply of labour”.
And while some businesses may feel an impending uncertainty heading into a second Trump administration, some business leaders believe the incoming administration will improve working conditions in the region and beyond.
“The Trump administration’s focus on tax incentives, deregulation and public-private partnerships is expected to speed up project approvals and lower costs,” says Robert Pelham, chief executive of Extreme Steel, #20 of this year’s list with $39.56 million in regional grosses. “The bipartisan Jobs and Infrastructure Act already supports our growth, and we are well positioned to capitalize on federal and state infrastructure investments.”
Extreme Steel Inc., ranked No. 20 in the ENR MidAtlantic Specialty Contractor Rankings, worked on the National Air and Space Museum, successfully erecting and dismantling five phases of temporary roof structures to allow the ‘removal and safe replacement of skylights.
Photo by Charles Mull, courtesy of Extreme Steel Inc.
Constant growth
In total, the 24 companies on this year’s list combined for $2.85 billion in revenue in a region that includes Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The combined total is a 4.01% increase over the $2.74 billion posted by the top 24 companies in last year’s ranking.
“The Trump administration’s focus on tax incentives, deregulation and public-private partnerships is expected to speed up project approvals and lower costs.”
—Robert Pelham, CEO of Extreme Steel
While Rosendin Electric Inc. dropped two places in the rankings this year to No. 3, Comfort Systems USA returned to the top spot after a one-year hiatus. The company posted regional revenue of $424.34 million, up 5.2% from last year, when the company finished second with $403.39 million in regional revenue.
The Houston-based company also topped the mechanical and plumbing segmented ranking. All its regional revenue was recorded in this sector. Overall, the seven companies that reported work in the mechanical/plumbing sector combined to bring in $1.12 billion in revenue, the same total as the top seven companies that reported mechanical/plumbing work last year.
Comfort Systems also performed $410.83 million worth of work in Virginia, up 5.8% from the $388.33 million it performed in Virginia the year before. In all, 14 companies in this year’s ranking reported a combined value of $1.05 billion in work in the state, compared to $1.2 billion done by 13 companies working in Virginia represented in the ranking of the last year
Graph by ENR
strong district
The District of Columbia saw a 6.45 percent increase in work in this year’s survey with $99 million reported by seven companies, up from $93 million in work done by seven companies in the last year’s survey.
This work included Extreme Steel’s efforts at the National Air and Space Museum, where it erected and dismantled five phases of temporary roof structures to allow for the removal and replacement of skylights. With full-span roof trusses measuring approximately 120 feet by 150 feet, the project required complex assemblies, custom plate assemblies with top welding, and seamless integration with the existing structure.
“Our team meticulously installed structural steel and temporary tarps while precisely coordinating to protect the valuable NASM artifacts below,” says Pelham, the company’s CEO.
Extreme Steel, which recently acquired Superior Iron Works, anticipates rapid growth in the structural steel, fabrication and construction industry over the next few years in the Washington metro area, “driven by high demand for projects of commercial construction and infrastructure,” says Pelham.
