Despite the collapse of the condo market, multifamily construction is down only about 5% in the last six months, thanks to a burst of apartment construction.
Condos, like single-family homes, suffered a sales decline caused by tighter mortgage underwriting standards at the bottom of the market and a withdrawal of speculative buyers at the top of the market. As a result, some projects designed as condos will be opened as apartments, and some buildings previously converted to condos will be converted back to apartments. Trends vary widely by region.
There is a huge surplus of entry-level condos in the hot growth metro areas of 2004-06, and a surplus of high-end condos in resort metro areas, especially in Florida.
Multifamily construction spending growth will be about 4-5% after inflation through 2007, and then steady at the 2007 level through next year.
Top 20 multifamily 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. Parsons Brinckerhoff | 62.65 |
| 2. Vanderweil Engineers | 46.79 |
| 3. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill | 23.10 |
| 4. RTKL Associates | 20.89 |
| 5. Arquitectonica | 17.64 |
| 6. STV Group | 17.60 |
| 7. Mithun | 17.20 |
| 8. Niles Bolton Associates | 14.82 |
| 9. Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart | 14.62 |
| 10. Elkus Manfredi Architects | 12.76 |
| 11. Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates | 12.00 |
| 12. Simpson Gumpertz & Heger | 11.59 |
| 13. Martin Associates Group | 11.20 |
| 14. Solomon Cordwell Buenz | 11.14 |
| 15. HKS | 10.78 |
| 16. Perkins Eastman | 10.50 |
| 17. Morris Architects | 9.65 |
| 18. Magnusson Klemencic Associates | 9.29 |
| 19. Ingenium Group | 9.22 |
| 20. MulvannyG2 Architecture | 8.84 |
Top 20 multifamily 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. Bovis Lend Lease | 2,597.86 |
| 2. Webcor Builders | 1,019.15 |
| 3. The Turner Corp. | 992.88 |
| 4. The Yates Cos. | 759.90 |
| 5. Balfour Beatty Construction | 738.08 |
| 6. Clark Group | 649.80 |
| 7. JE Dunn Construction Group | 614.88 |
| 8. The Opus Group | 600.24 |
| 9. Suffolk Construction | 575.47 |
| 10. PCL Construction Enterprises | 490.39 |
| 11. Structure Tone | 429.30 |
| 12. The Walsh Group | 427.50 |
| 13. James McHugh Construction | 416.90 |
| 14. Swinerton Inc. | 393.53 |
| 15. JPI | 392.25 |
| 16. Hunt Building Co. | 378.62 |
| 17. Hoffman Construction | 329.40 |
| 18. Moss & Associates | 281.33 |
| 19. Brasfield & Gorrie | 243.68 |
| 20. Weis Builders | 228.17 |
