Feed

Construction Outlook 2012

By Daniel Edward Rosen 2/14/12 2:02pm

Construction Outlook 2012

Barry LePatner: Cassandra or Nostradamus?

Construction Attorney Warns, Developers need to Get off the Sidelines and do what they do best: Build

He’s the Cassandra of the construction industry, the rabble-rouser of rubble.

Attorney Barry LePatner, founder of LePatner & Associates LLP and author of construction shock books Too Big to Fall: America’s Failing Infrastructure and the Way Forward and Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets, has his own 30,000-foot-high view looking down on the current state of New York City’s construction industry. He believes there will be a $25 trillion construction boom in New York and the rest of the country between now and the year 2035. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 2/14/12 2:00pm

Construction Outlook 2012

2044_1_51AstorPlace_Page_08

Construction Financing is Back But, As Developers Are Learning, Equity is Key

Plenty of statistics point to the need for new office construction in Manhattan, and the city’s aging building stock isn’t least among them.

Indeed, no meaningful addition to the city’s roughly 400 million square feet of commercial space has been added to the skyline in two decades, raising questions as to whether it could face a shortage in the coming years, a situation that has pressured rental spikes in the past. For now, however, amid what appears to be at least a hiccup in leasing during the last quarter of 2011 and the opening quarter of this year—not to mention lingering concerns about the health of the economy—only the most intrepid developers have gone into the ground with projects. Read More