Demand for cranes is soaring and the lack of them is slowing down commercial construction in parts of the country. With all the focus on the residential slowdown we sometimes fail to see how busy commercial construction has been.

The commercial market is up 14 percent in the first 3 months of 2007 as compared to last year. That is a huge number. We get so focused on the slowdown on residential real estate since most of the people here make their living in that sphere that we forget about the other half.

So when those that expected a huge domino effect to happen when the residential market slowed down, a spiraling effect of housing losses and great damage to the economy, are still going to be waiting. The economy is continuing to chug along and those that work in the real estate sector have just transposed their skills to the commercial building side.

The only group that is being seriously affected are those homeowners with bad loans (which is a self inflicted wound), real estate agents, and mortgage brokers. The latter two categories needed a culling and if I had to place a bet, the better agents are still making a pretty good living waiting out the slowdown.

But if you say that real estate as a whole is falling apart, you are sadly mistaken.

Booming commercial construction, an aging work force and tighter certification requirements are pushing demand for cranes and their operators nationwide.”Every marketplace that we’re in right now is saturated,” said Sam Latona, preconstruction manager with Turner Construction, a Dallas-based company with offices across the country. “All the contractors are basically at 100 percent capacity and exceeding it.”

Commercial building is hot in Texas, Florida, California, New York and other parts of the West Coast, Midwest and Northeast, industry officials say. Spending on nonresidential construction was up nearly 14 percent during the first three months of 2007 from last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Ken Simonson, chief economist with The Associated General Contractors of America, said much of that spending involves crane projects, such as multistory hotels and offices. via My Way Finance

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