Another Angle: Building boom

Vitruvius, Contributor

FAST FOOD establishment by stand pipe. Large steel and concrete building by Donhead Avenue. Huge redevelopment of the old Fuentes cigar factory. New building going up at the corner of Hillcrest. Two new town house schemes on Seymour lands - one by Retreat and one on Seymour Avenue.

Cherry Hill development by Geon. Three new town house schemes on Norbrook Drive. A house modification too. New building and refurbishment of another on Portmore round-a-bout. Newly completed ship looking building by the waterfront.

These are just a few of the current building sites that I have been able to pick off the top of my head without too much thought.

There are many others I have seen, and even more I'm sure that I haven't, but others have. So is the building industry dead. I think not.

Sure, multi-rise banks and insurance companies are not so common, but BNS did just finish its corporate headquarters. The prophecies of death and doom of the industry are over-rated I think.

I feel that things are making a turn for the better, as there are even more things on the drawing board. Certainly we don't have the heady boom of the eighties, but did anyone really think that would last. However that time may come again. It always does.

Maybe not this year or the next but they will. The question is will we be prepared. Will we have the qualified and experienced professionals to do the work. So many professionals are leaving the island, and it seems that the better or more experienced contractors are either at retirement age or have headed off to that great construction site in the sky.

So what happens when the banks and so forth decide they need these people. God forbid they look overseas, but they may have to. So although the building industry may be poised to expand again, it is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Let's look at the solution. Well, it would be easy to ask government for some incentives but I think the industry is a bit above that. So the next thing is to retool, reorganise and be more competitive. And, as important, provide a better and more economic service.

The buildings that are all going up now are based on creative and innovative solutions that cost less, and they don't kill the developer with interest payments.

Admittedly part of the pick up in the industry is for just that reason. Interest percentages have declined. Therefore, the solutions are really no single magic wand but a combination of factors, and basically only the strong will survive.

Email: vitruvius_@hotmail.com

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