Hot construction markets

By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 7/1/2000

The strong economy of the past few years has given way to a healthy construction market across the nation. While rising interest rates threaten to slow this trend in the months ahead, overall activity remains strong. Distributors serving the construction industry up and down the East Coast can attest to that.

In this special report, ID examines three hot construction markets-New England, the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and Florida. Earlier this year, we set out to discover the major projects in those regions and their impact on local distributors' business. What we found were some prime opportunities for distributors selling a range of products-from construction supplies to safety equipment to electrical products, just to name a few.

Each region is marked by distinct trends. While Boston's Big Dig is the talk of the town, we found that residential, commercial and non-building (heavy/highway) construction is booming from Massachusetts to Maine. Companies like N.H. Bragg & Sons of Bangor, Me., have experienced double-digit growth in construction business in the last year and a half-partially due to growth in utilities and infrastructure improvements in the northern New England states.

In the Washington, D.C., area, an influx of high-tech business is causing a construction wave-new office buildings are going up, followed by schools, commercial projects, and the need for road improvements. All of that keeps distributors like Trio Fasteners in Ashland, Va., hopping. Sales manager Reid Hopkins says the firm has seen considerable growth in the last four years.

And in Florida, construction activity is sizzling. Distributors say both residential and commercial contractors are keeping them busy, due to a strong economy and the state's rising population. Contractors working on infrastructure improvements in the state-like the expansion of two key airports-are also throwing plenty of work distributors' way.