Commercial Report: Retail construction will keep the commercial market robust

Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data

The commercial market has been expanding steadily for three years, in pace with the overall economy, and will continue doing so for several more years. Consumer income and spending growth slowed over the past year, but surged higher in April.

The depressing impact of high energy prices and ebbing home values will keep consumer spending growth slightly below GDP growth through 2008, but it will expand fast enough to support adding retail space. Construction of shopping centers and malls is expanding rapidly while construction of standalone buildings is growing slowly, except drug stores and restaurants.

Jobsite construction spending for multi-retail buildings in April was 20% higher than a year earlier. Spending for large shopping malls was up nearly 40% over the last year.

The value of commercial construction starts is up 20% through May compared to the first five months of last year, according to Reed Construction Data.

Top 20 commercial design firms
(2006 billings in $ millions)

Firm	Billings
Source: 2007 Giants 300 survey Note: This ranking is based on firms that made the Giants 300 list.
1. Gensler	357.85
2. HOK	179.52
3. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill	109.20
4. Callison	106.49
5. Carter & Burgess	85.30
6. URS Corp.	76.00
7. HKS	71.88
8. RTKL Associates	62.67
9. Syska Hennessy Group	62.66
10. Perkins+Will	61.20
11. Day & Zimmermann	58.50
12. WD Partners	55.70
13. Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo	54.96
14. Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates	54.56
15. NBBJ	52.78
16. Walker Parking Consultants	52.60
17. Nelson	50.83
18. SmithGroup	49.27
19. Thornton Tomasetti	44.82
20. Parsons Brinckerhoff	44.75

Top 20 commercial contractors
(2006 revenue in $ millions)

Firm	Revenue
Source: 2007 Giants 300 survey Note: This ranking is based on firms that made the Giants 300 list.
1. The Turner Corp.	2,233.98
2. Structure Tone	1,860.30
3. The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.	1,759.47
4. Perini Corp.	1,528.19
5. The Weitz Co.	1,341.03
6. Hunt Construction Group	1,293.50
7. Bovis Lend Lease	1,020.59
8. Swinerton Inc.	975.27
9. Skanska USA Building	874.00
10. PCL Construction Enterprises	800.11
11. Clark Group	779.76
12. The Opus Group	706.16
13. EMJ Corp.	701.14
14. Hensel Phelps Construction	681.91
15. Holder Construction	674.05
16. HITT Contracting	659.97
17. Brasfield & Gorrie	644.00
18. Webcor Builders	641.69
19. Robins & Morton	627.54
20. M. A. Mortenson Co.	604.71

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