Construction leader tells industry: get ready for NY's building boom.

Lou Colletti, President, Building Trades Employers' Association, has never been more bullish on New York, claiming, in fact, before an audience of 300 at the BOMA/NY June luncheon, that with the billions of dollars and millions of square feet on new space on the drawing boards for the next 20 to 30 years, "New York is about to enter, potentially, its greatest cycle of real estate growth and construction in a generation, if not more."

Despite the skepticism surrounding Mayor Bloomberg's earlier years in office, he said, the "administration is determined to grow the City economically, and in a way that has been unfeasible before." Pointing to the West Side waterfront, and in particular, the Hudson Yards site currently occupied by 147 families and 17 trees, he said, "how can you object to a revitalization plan that will house 400 families, be filled with parkland and create 300,000 jobs?"

And as for the campaigns--pro and con--against the expanded New York Sports/Conventions Center facility being touted as "Jets Stadium," Colletti stated that "the City has already lost millions of dollars in the past 10 years because it did not expand the Javits Center, with one of the consequences being last year's increase in real estate taxes. Tourism is one of New York's few growth industries and we cannot afford to fall behind."

But there are more immediate signs of growth and they are in lower Manhattan, Colletti said, and not just in the building of 7 World Trade Center. "The recent response to Battery Park City's call for an RFP was unprecedented: 10 developers responded where the rule had been 3 or 4 in the past." His organization also sees a dramatic uptake in interior renovations and construction, though, he said, it is difficult to tell if they are expansions or consolidations.

One consequence of the impending construction is the re-emergence of a trend that bodes well for the City's reputation and economy: "design is being challenged once again ... with Freedom Tower and the new WTC Path Station, New York is not only going back to good design, it is taking it to a level it hasn't seen before," said Colletti.

"We are seeing tremendous creativity and design, and it is vital, as our skyline is the first impression of New York."

With billions to be spent on new construction, he said, two critical questions need to be answered: does the construction industry have the contractor capacity to handle the load, and is there enough skilled labor? The answer to both is a qualified "yes." While Colletti admits the industry has not been good at recruiting key positions such as project managers or cost estimators, and the mid-sized contractors often have to add staff, New York has the potential to meet this challenge.

"We want New Yorkers to build New York," he declared "and we are seeing many of our potential construction employees and future leaders now coming to the unions right out of high school." It is just, he explained, that the faces are changing--including more Hispanic workers and more women.