Report: Public Sector Driving NYC School Market

NEW YORK — Construction in the K-12 and higher ed markets accounted for 56 percent of $8.1 billion in institutional projects started in New York City over a two-year period that ended last April, according to the New York Building Congress, a professional association for the city’s construction industry.
 

In an August report, the NYBC stated that the public sector was responsible for $4.87 billion of project starts, while private sector developers accounted for the remaining $3.28 billion of the more than 1,500 total construction projects initiated over the two-year period. In addition to K-12 and higher education schools, the NYBC report examined the development of hospitals and healthcare facilities, courts, libraries, cultural facilities and religious institutions.
 

The value of institutional construction reached $1.1 billion in the first four months of 2010, well exceeding the $325 million in new starts during the first four months of 2009. Hospitals and healthcare buildings represented the majority of the 2010 starts with nearly three-dozen projects of varying sizes, including Weill Cornell Medical College’s $650 million research building.
 

Approximately 900 public school projects have been initiated over the last two years, due largely to the New York City School Construction Authority’s ongoing work. The SCA started $3.1 billion in public school projects from May 2008 to April 2010, compared to $174 million begun by private elementary and secondary schools.
 

Private colleges and universities were responsible for $744 million in starts, while publicly owned higher education institutions accounted for $540 million in projects, according to the report.
 

Hospitals and healthcare facilities were directly attributable for $1.96 billion in construction starts, with private institutions accounting for $1.4 billion of that amount. Cultural institutions produced $764 million in projects and court facilities $600 million.
 

Eleven starts were valued at more than $100 million apiece, adding a combined $2.9 billion to the pot.
 

Notable projects in the NYBC report included $458 million for the renovation and expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and $173 million in upgrades to the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse.
 

Construction of new facilities made up $4.8 billion of the total projects and included City University of New York’s $381 million Advanced Science Research Center and $210 million Fiterman Hall, and a $225 million research building at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
 

“Columbia, NYU and Fordham have unveiled detailed campus expansion plans that will stretch for years,” says NYBC’s president, Richard T. Anderson. “CUNY has more than $1 billion in projects in varying stages of development. These projects, and many more like them, clearly demonstrate New York’s continued vitality.”