We recently talked with managers of four Des Moines area-construction companies about the outlook for 2021 and other related topics. The following are some highlights of those conversations broken down by topic:

Finding workers
Vince Ward, business development director for Weitz Co: “We recruit heavily from Iowa State, on the project management and construction engineering side. At this point, we’ve been pretty fortunate to be able to find great people and keep our jobs staffed without a ton of difficulty, but definitely there’s not a lot of extra people out there. As we head into 2021, we think that availability will probably become a little more manageable. I think other areas are potentially slowing down a little bit and that we should be able to have good access to labor.”

Creighton Cox, manager of business development – Iowa, Turner Construction Co.: “Our biggest challenge across the construction landscape for next year is labor and skilled labor, specifically with data centers. You’ve got the Altoona data centers [Facebook]; you got the West Des Moines data centers [Microsoft] and the two new Microsoft data centers. Apple, at some point, will break ground in Waukee. Electricians are the number one labor pool that I believe we are going to be short on.”

Industrial construction
Cox: “Industrial continues to boom … especially in the Des Molines area because of Amazon. As Amazon comes in, there’s a residual effect to have other larger, manufacturer distributors put warehouses in so that their lead time to deliver a product that Amazon needs to ship out to their customer is within a 10- to 15-mile radius. … I would not be surprised for us to see other distribution centers and other manufacturers creating warehouse space.”

2021 and beyond
Josh Braby, construction manager, shareholder, Neumann Brothers: “The architect community is very, very active and busy right now. We usually trail about six months behind the architects. So if they are busy right now, that bodes pretty well for construction in 2021. We’re seeing a lot of projects that will be hitting the streets in the April and May timeframe. And it’s across the board. It’s not just one market sector. It’s not just private. It’s not just public. It’s not just manufacturing. It’s everybody.”

Grant Taylor, vice president, Hansen Company Inc.: “The bright side is that some owners have recognized that the market is very competitive and it’s a great time to bid out their projects. They are banking on the premise that by the time the project is designed and built that the pandemic will be behind us or under control. We’re fortunate to have some of those clients.”

Read the print story: To read “Construction managers cautious about 2021,” click here.