New York City’s public and private institutions initiated $4.6 billion in construction projects in 2015 and $26.1 billion over an eight-year period between July 2008 and June 2016, according to a New York Building Congress analysis of construction data from Dodge Data & Analytics.
 
The $4.6 billion in 2015 project starts represents the highest yearly total since at least 2009, the earliest period for which the Building Congress has data, and an increase of 22 percent from the 2014 total of $3.8 billion. The value of construction starts reached $2.6 billion in 2013 and $2.4 billion in both 2012 and 2011.
 
The sectors examined in this report include public and private elementary and secondary schools, hospitals and healthcare facilities, colleges and universities, courts, libraries, cultural facilities, and religious institutions. The data encompass all recorded project starts, including new construction as well as alterations and renovations to existing structures, and reflect the estimated value of each initiated project through the entire period of construction.

First Half of 2016
During the first half of 2016, New York City’s institutions initiated $1.4 billion in construction projects, which is less than half of the $3.0 billion realized in the first six months of 2015, a period that was bolstered by the start of construction of Memorial Sloan Kettering and CUNY Hunter College’s medical research and treatment complex in Manhattan. 

While down from 2015, the $1.4 billion in construction starts is still greater than the amounts realized in the first six months of other recent years. Construction starts reached $796 million in the first half of 2014; $1.2 billion in the first half of 2013; and $617 million and $1.2 billion in the same period of 2012 and 2011, respectively.

“New York City’s public and private institutions continue to be a constant and stable generator of construction spending and jobs,” said Building Congress President Richard T. Anderson. “These investments are more important than ever given New York City’s need to accommodate the residents, visitors, students, and workers who are flocking to the City in record numbers.”

Sector Analysis
Schools and hospitals continue to be the main drivers of new construction projects in the institutional sector.

In the eight years from July 2008 through June of this year, work on New York City public elementary and secondary schools accounted for $9.6 billion, or 37 percent of all institutional construction starts by total value. Of the projects started in the first half of 2016, public schools accounted for 38 percent.

Public and private hospitals and healthcare facilities accounted for $8.0 billion, or 31 percent, of all institutional construction starts during the eight-year period, and 32 percent of the projects initiated in the first six months of this year.

Institutions of higher education, which include public and private colleges and universities, initiated $4.1 billion worth of construction projects, or 16 percent of the total over the past eight years. In the first half of 2016, higher education accounted for 10 percent of construction starts by value.

New York City’s cultural facilities accounted for six percent of all institutional construction starts over the eight-year period, as did the City’s private elementary and secondary schools.  Religious institutions, courts, and libraries each accounted for between one and two percent of construction starts by value.

Approximately 53 percent of the projects, as measured by total value over the eight-year period, have been for ground-up construction of new facilities. The remaining 47 percent were renovations and alterations to existing structures. New construction accounted for approximately 46 percent in the first half of 2016. 

Top Projects
The healthcare sector contributed three of the top ten projects by value initiated in the first half of 2016, including the top-ranked project – the South Beach Psychiatric Center inpatient facility on Staten Island. That project, which has a hard construction value of $180 million, is just the 16th most valuable institutional start over the past eight years, which is an indication of a lack of truly big-ticket projects in the City at the start of 2016.

The education sector was responsible for seven of the top ten projects during the first half of 2016. Of those projects, the New York City School Construction Authority initiated three – an expansion and renovation of Intermediate School 125 in Woodside, Queens; an addition to Curtis High School in St. George, Staten Island; and construction of Public School 332, a new school in Oakland Gardens, Queens.

“To address current overcrowding and accommodate anticipated enrollment growth, the New York City School Construction Authority has undertaken a five-year, $14.9 billion capital program that, judging from the top projects list, is starting to pay dividends,” noted Mr. Anderson.

Of the top ten institutional projects in the first half of 2016, nine were located in the outer boroughs. Only one, a private school project on the Upper East Side, was located in Manhattan.

“It is interesting to note that so many of the larger institutional projects undertaken in early 2016 are happening in the outer boroughs, when you consider that 16 of the top 20 institutional construction starts over the last eight year emanated from the island of Manhattan,” added Mr. Anderson. “This is a potential trend that is worth keeping an eye on, especially in light of all the new residential and commercial development we are seeing throughout Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island.”

Dodge data used for this analysis can be purchased at dodge.construction.com.

Charts and Diagrams

---

Source: Dodge Data & Analytics

---

Source: Dodge Data & Analytics