New construction starts nationwide advanced 8% in June over the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $662.4 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction. Nonresidential building showed an especially strong performance, surging up 29% over May, while residential building improved a moderate 4%, mostly due to a strong 40% increase in multifamily housing.

Excluding residential building from the year-to-date statistics, new construction starts in the first six months of 2007 were up 2% over 2006.

Source: McGraw-Hill Construction

The St. Louis County Port Authority has completed a land purchase that will pave the way for construction to begin on the $375 million Pinnacle Entertainment casino and hotel project. The project is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs.

The County purchased 39 acres in south St. Louis County that Pinnacle will use to build a four-lane access road to its planned River City Casino and Hotel. Pinnacle plans to open the development in 2008.

The County bought the land for $3 million in early July, according to sources. The property, the former site of the Air Force National Imagery and Mapping Agency, was heavily damaged by the 1993 flood. Environmental remediation is expected to begin immediately.

Source: St. Louis Business Journal, MSN Money.com

Cold weather and the housing slowdown put a damper on nationwide construction jobs in February according to the Associated General Contractors of America, but nonresidential segments should rebound this month.  February included a week of ice storms across much of the U.S. whereas January had an exceptionally balmy week.  As a result, some contractors may have started jobs in January that normally would have been postponed until later in the spring, then postponed hiring during the freeze.  One sign that nonresidential construction will resume growth is the fact that architectural and engineering firms have seen a 5 percent increase in job growth over the past year, and their work turns into construction within a few months.  Meanwhile, nonresidential construction spending is up 15 percent over last January.  The AGC concludes that nonresidential construction will be healthy through 2007, and probably beyond.

While residential construction fell two percent last year, private commercial construction went up 16 percent and public construction 10 percent, according to the US Census Bureau. The Christian Science Monitor’s Ron Scherer reports that new hotel construction was up 52 percent over 2005, factory construction 20 percent and office building rose 18 percent. Commercial construction has even absorbed many residential construction workers. Last month, 80,000 jobs were lost in residential construction while commercial contractors hired 180,000 workers.

Seven construction job categories are among the 20 fastest-growing occupations projected for the St. Louis region through the end of 2007, according to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center. The construction jobs that are projected to grow from 6% to 7% include:

• Tile and marble setters
• Roofers
• Pipelayers
• Cement masons and concrete finishers
• Paving workers
• Iron and rebar workers
• Brickmason, stonemason and blockmason helpers

The trends reflect a locally strong commercial construction industry and underscore the need for programs to attract and train new workers.