DENVER – The Associated General Contractors of Colorado (AGC), the state’s leading professional association for the commercial building industry, each year issues a building and economic forecast, and while the economy is still sluggish in historical terms, the ACG’s Outlook 2013 for the commercial development industry is rather rosy, particularly for activity in the private sector.
Presented in early December with a forecast covering 2013, the AGC forecast called for modest 2.7 percent growth in Gross Domestic product (GDP) for the state, but looked toward for a rather robust 6 percent growth in the construction industry. The organization said that public sector spending on construction will stabilized, although not contribute to growth, so “2013 will be highly dependent upon private business contributions,” the report noted. The Outlook pointed to such building sectors as apartments, assisted living facilities, hotels, hospitals, and distribution centers as the strongest for the coming year.
The AGC said that Colorado is in the front third for U.S. states in leading the overall economic recovery from the depths of the financial crisis that set off in 2008 with the collapse of the residential mortgage market. Since 2010, Colorado has added 12,000 jobs in the construction industry, the AGC said, and this should continue to rise as new private-sector construction projects come on line, and also because the state has restored $100 million in local infrastructure funding for water, sewer and other similar projects.
Another economic forecast, from Chase and J.P Morgan, forecast GDP growth in Colorado in 2013 at 3.9%, half a percentage point higher than its forecast for the entire country, 3.4%. Next year looks even better for Colorado, Chase/J.P. Morgan reported, with 2014 GPD growth forecast to reach 4.3%, compared with a national forecast of 4%.
“GDP growth, more construction activity, and more jobs point to a recovering economy and that is good news for Colorado,” says Gary Stone, founder and chief of Denver-based Allstar Electrical Services. “We were not surprised by the forecast because our electrical business, particularly on the commercial side, is seeing an upswing of activity. We’re heartened, however, that the word on economic recovery is getting out in news reports to the general public, because it seems like a more optimistic public will help the economy recover more quickly.”
Allstar Electrical Services, LLC, founded 13 years ago and based in the Stapleton business district, is a full service electric contractor performing a wide range of services for homeowners and commercial/industrial property owners throughout the Denver metro area and Colorado Front Range. Fully licensed and bonded, the firm’s extensivecommercial electrical division does everything from minor repairs and upgrades, to full design and installation of electrical systems for new buildings and on renovations and repurposing on existing structures.
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