Construction companies, big and small, figure to be the primary beneficiaries of some $4.2 billion in federal stimulus money that will flow into Arizona in the months ahead. But economists and industry officials say businesses across the board will share in what could be a spending bonanza.
Clearly not everyone is in construction. Yet, as major projects move from drawing boards to construction sites, laborers and management teams are in a better position to perhaps buy a car or get an old one repaired, purchase a needed washer or dryer, go out to dinner, or shop for clothes for their kids. That’s what many see happening as the money flows downstream.
Industry experts say estimates of the multiplier effect range from 3.5 to 5.5, meaning that for every dollar spent on construction, the impact on the rest of the economy is $3.50 to $5.50. Others say that every $1 billion spent on construction results in 35,000 to 40,000 jobs.
Other businesses in line to benefit include those related to health care, energy efficiency and home improvement. And it will help if a business is savvy about coping with government bureaucracy.
There are debates about whether the Obama administration’s $787 billion stimulus package involves too much government or not enough government, but everyone seems to agree that government has to do something to pull the nation out of the worse economic downfall in decades.
Economics Professor Dennis Hoffman, director of the L. William Seidman Research Institute at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business, is among those who expect stimulus money targeted for indigent health care to have a ripple effect, impacting hospitals and health professionals. But, says Hoffman, who has done projects for Del Webb Construction, the Arizona Department of Transportation, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and APS, there is more.
“Any private sector business that supports K-12 and to some degree higher education, will benefit,” Hoffman says.
He includes suppliers, and maintenance and construction firms that serve the education field. Above all, construction companies involved in infrastructure and road building will receive what Hoffman calls “a needed shot in the arm.”
“The general contractors have been begging for this,” Hoffman says. “They were absolutely on the front lines working for this injection, because their businesses were dead in the water.”
Of the $4.2 billion in stimulus money, $522 million is allocated for transportation.
David Martin, executive director of the Associated General Contractors, Arizona Chapter, echoes Hoffman’s assessment. “All highway and heavy construction firms will be beneficiaries,” Martin says.
Additionally, contractors who work on education facilities, particularly in lower-income areas, and those that build water-treatment facilities, emergency shelters, and public infrastructure projects, such as streets and sidewalks, should benefit. Martin calls it “neighborhood stabilization.”
David Jones, president and CEO of the Arizona Contractors Association, says companies with experience in public works projects will benefit, especially those that “historically understand red tape and the bureaucratic levels of federal contracting.”
Utility companies should be able to take on energy-related projects, and work should be available for companies that retrofit residential, schools and government buildings to solar energy, Jones says. Women, minority and disadvantaged business enterprises, plus businesses run by war veterans “will have a place at the table,” he adds.
Homebuilders could benefit from projects on military bases, such as single-family units or replacing aging barracks.
Doug Pruitt, president and CEO of Sundt Corp., says contractors such as Sundt are positioned to do well in the stimulus world because of the company’s broad market diversification.
“We do highway work, industrial, water and sewage treatment, university work, K-12 — a whole host of building work,” Pruitt says.
He doesn’t expect much school construction, however, because nationally only 8.3 percent of the $143 billion allocated for construction is set aside for schools. Most of the money will go for highways, bridges and water-related projects, with funds funneled through such federal agencies as the General Services Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Pruitt says Sundt is focusing on its federal divisions and moving personnel from other units that have suffered because of the economy.
At Sunstate Equipment in Phoenix, which rents a full line of hand tools to heavy equipment, CEO Benno Jurgemeyer says it all comes down to “job creation and getting consumers back in a spending mode.” He says his company would benefit directly from highway or vertical construction, and indirectly if the stimulus package keeps office buildings and retail centers rented and full of employees and customers, thus accelerating the development process.
Jeff Whiteman, president and CEO of Empire Southwest, an authorized Caterpillar dealer for heavy equipment including off-highway tractors and trucks, says his firm should see some benefits, but adds: “I think it falls far short of being a true stimulus package and truly creating jobs. What we have is better than nothing. It will help us as construction picks up and hopefully some highways are built.”
Typically, businesses such as Empire Southwest are the first in and the first out of a recession. When housing construction stops, site preparation and development stops, and when housing is ready to resume, site preparation resumes. But in today’s economy, so many improved lots are ready for building that Whiteman says his industry’s recovery will be tied to heavy and highway construction.
