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David D’Hondt has seen firsthand the ups and downs of the Seattle construction market.
The executive vice president of Associated General Contractors of Washington and a 30-year industry veteran, D’Hondt he said construction activity there currently follows the flow of public money. Where private development was once king, infrastructure is on the rise.
“We’ve just had a long period of growth in the Puget Sound region. This is very well sustained construction,” D’Hondt told Construction Dive.
The Emerald City, located in Washington’s King County, is an interesting area for construction. According to Cumming Group report.
For example, in 2021, the city banned natural gas in new buildings, KUOW reported. It also plans to be carbon neutral within 30 years and encourages green construction with services including faster permit review for sustainable projects, additional development capacity for milestone projects, and a committee that reviews new energy-efficient proposals not currently covered by the building code.
David D’Hondt
Permission granted by AGC of Washington
This has led to high-profile green projects such as the Climate Pledge Arena, home of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, which claims to be the first functional sports hall with zero carbon never built through the Zero Carbon certification of the International Living Future Institute. This means that more than 90% of the waste generated on site is diverted from a landfill.
Future development
Of course, Seattle is also known for the tech companies that have set up shop there: Microsoft and Amazon, for example, are headquartered in the metro area. Those companies started booming decades ago, said Bryan Maggio, the director of business development in Minneapolis-based Mortenson’s Seattle office.
Bryan May
Permission granted by Mortenson
And, as in many areas of the country, the infrastructure and manufacturing sectors are hot. According to Cumming Group, construction volume in these sectors is expected to grow by 10.4% and 8.3% year-on-year, respectively. Money is flowing to public works like the $10 billion Sound Transit light rail project Other infrastructure works include Seattle Tacoma International Airport’s $1.5 billion concourse renewal
Seattle, Washington State remains ahead of the US in construction spending
Optional subtitle
Courtesy of Cumming Group
So is Seattle the king of cranes, according to Rider Levett Bucknall, who tracks the team on a city skyline. It recorded 21% growth in structures year-on-year, adding nine in total in the third quarter of 2023.
The 1,000-foot view
Overall, Seattle is an attractive place to build, Maggio said.
“I think we’ve been in a strong, probably decades-long boom cycle in the region, driven primarily by net migration into the area,” Maggio said. The city has gone from a population of about 563,000 in 2000 a about 737,000 in 2020according to the Seattle government website.
Top construction projects in Seattle
| project | General Contractor | cost |
|---|---|---|
| Sound traffic expansion project | Kiewit & Hoffman JV | 10 billion dollars |
| Seattle Tacoma International Airport South Concourse Evolution Project | Hensel Phelps | 1.5 billion dollars |
| Harborview Medical Center New Medical Tower | TBD | 925 million dollars |
| Kaiser Permanente Special Care Center | mortenson | 500 million dollars |
However, these strengths may not be able to offset a drop in activity: Seattle’s total construction volume is expected to decline 3.6% in 2023, according to the Cumming Group, bogged down mainly by the residential segment, which it is expected to fall by 7.7%.
“In the years I have been working in the construction sector, we have seen ups and downs. Right now, we’re in a down cycle,” said Michael Harder, vice president of Minneapolis-based Mortenson’s Seattle office. Harder to quote oroffice and development projects that require external capital like those that have suffered the most.
Michael Harder
Permission granted by Mortenson
Experts blame rising interest rates and increases in material prices, which have also taken place hurt the contractors of other metros all over the country Maggio said he estimated that the peak of Seattle’s construction industry was about a year or two behind.
“I think we’re still the U.S. leader in aerial cranes, but you’re going to see those cranes go down, and I think our prediction is that you’re not going to see a lot of them come back next year,” Maggio said.
D’Hondt provided his own form of anecdotal evidence for the decline of construction.
“It wasn’t too long ago that I was able to sit in my office in Lake Union, and I was able to look at 55 tower cranes that were building new office buildings for Amazon, Google and Facebook,” D’Hondt said. “And all this is over.”
However, this does not mean that technological construction is dead, or even endangered. While infrastructure is the story at this point, Harder predicted a quick return, but not necessarily to office work, in another case of the cycle repeating itself.
Harder told Construction Dive that he expected an increase in construction associated with supporting the development of artificial intelligence systems, including offices, laboratories and testing facilities.
“I think this technology is going to pick up pretty strongly here shortly. I don’t know if that’s going to lead to us building more office buildings, because I think we’re still going to see a lot of these team members working from remote locations,” he said. Harder.
