Study: Commercial Construction About to Boom

None by KCPW

Utah Wave to Last Three Years

(KCPW News) According to a new report issued by the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah, the Beehive State is about to see its commercial construction sector boom. The data shows more than a million square feet of retail space to be already under construction, says John Taylor of Commerce CRG, the real estate firm that commissioned the report:

"The office space, we're another million square feet under construction, with slightly over 2 million planned, and the industrial sector is even a little stronger with two-million-eight either planned or under construction - that's all just Salt Lake County."

It's a boom, not a bubble, declares Taylor, who expects the growth in commercial construction to last as many as three years. He says this boom has more staying power due to the source of the demand:

"The growth is really solid this time, we're not growing off of a dot-come thing where people are getting twice as much space as they need. They're cautious this time and they're taking what they need and being a little tight. We're absorbing out of small growth, small home-grown business primarily, although we are having some good relocations into the market."

Total non-residential construction - meaning commercial, institutional, and retail construction - came in at just over $696 million for January to June 2006.

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