New York City has faced one challenge after another in recentmonths. On the positive side, however, Phase One of reopeningbegins Monday, and with it the restart of construction. After athree-month delay, with significant distress on everything fromfinancing to staffing, developers face numerous hurdles as theyscramble to get back to work and complete their projects.

In Q1 of 2020 alone, applications for 11 million square feet ofnew construction and about 890,000 square feet of alterations weresubmitted in New York City. During the crisis, approximately 32,000non-essential New York City construction sites, including bothlarge-scale construction and smaller renovation projects, were shutdown. All of these are now behind schedule and over budget.Although roughly 9,500 sites were deemed essential, they arestruggling to stay on schedule and under budget while followingsocial distancing protocols in an industry that requires working inclose quarters.

Developers of so-called non-essential projects, who have missedcritical project milestones and who are now under enormousfinancial pressure, are seeking to advance construction as swiftlyas possible. They will face a series of issues.