Home

Commercial Report: Retail construction will keep the commercial market robust

Aug. 11, 2010
11 min read

The commercial market has been expanding steadily for three years, in pace with the overall economy, and will continue doing so for several more years. Consumer income and spending growth slowed over the past year, but surged higher in April.

The depressing impact of high energy prices and ebbing home values will keep consumer spending growth slightly below GDP growth through 2008, but it will expand fast enough to support adding retail space. Construction of shopping centers and malls is expanding rapidly while construction of standalone buildings is growing slowly, except drug stores and restaurants.

Jobsite construction spending for multi-retail buildings in April was 20% higher than a year earlier. Spending for large shopping malls was up nearly 40% over the last year.

The value of commercial construction starts is up 20% through May compared to the first five months of last year, according to Reed Construction Data.

Top 20 commercial design firms
(2006 billings in $ millions)

Firm Billings
Source: 2007 Giants 300 survey
Note: This ranking is based on firms that made the Giants 300 list.
1. Gensler 357.85
2. HOK 179.52
3. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 109.20
4. Callison 106.49
5. Carter & Burgess 85.30
6. URS Corp. 76.00
7. HKS 71.88
8. RTKL Associates 62.67
9. Syska Hennessy Group 62.66
10. Perkins+Will 61.20
11. Day & Zimmermann 58.50
12. WD Partners 55.70
13. Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo 54.96
14. Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates 54.56
15. NBBJ 52.78
16. Walker Parking Consultants 52.60
17. Nelson 50.83
18. SmithGroup 49.27
19. Thornton Tomasetti 44.82
20. Parsons Brinckerhoff 44.75

Top 20 commercial contractors
(2006 revenue in $ millions)

Firm Revenue
Source: 2007 Giants 300 survey
Note: This ranking is based on firms that made the Giants 300 list.
1. The Turner Corp. 2,233.98
2. Structure Tone 1,860.30
3. The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. 1,759.47
4. Perini Corp. 1,528.19
5. The Weitz Co. 1,341.03
6. Hunt Construction Group 1,293.50
7. Bovis Lend Lease 1,020.59
8. Swinerton Inc. 975.27
9. Skanska USA Building 874.00
10. PCL Construction Enterprises 800.11
11. Clark Group 779.76
12. The Opus Group 706.16
13. EMJ Corp. 701.14
14. Hensel Phelps Construction 681.91
15. Holder Construction 674.05
16. HITT Contracting 659.97
17. Brasfield & Gorrie 644.00
18. Webcor Builders 641.69
19. Robins & Morton 627.54
20. M. A. Mortenson Co. 604.71

Sign up for Building Design+Construction Newsletters