The CIRB figures, which compare this year's first quarter numbers to those of last year, show that the commercial sector slipped to about $3.1 billion for the quarter, down 4.6%.The non-profit CIRB says residential building drove the increase in overall construction volume. Residential construction climbed 32.6% to slightly more than $8.9 billion for the first three months of the year, according to Ben Bartolotto, CIRB's research director.
Most of the decline in commercial building is centered in the San Francisco area, where commercial construction was down 29.1%. The Central Coast suffered a decline of 21.3%. Bartolotto forecasts that economic uncertainties will postpone any recovery in the state's commercial building sector for this year.
Public building construction went the opposite way from private building in the first quarter. It was up 54.9% to $2.21 billion, according to CIRB figures, with most of this increase due to a 62.3% rise in school building. Major projects contributing to the total included a $100.6 million portion of the Los Angeles County USC Medical Center Hospital; $72.7 million in University of California construction in the Los Angeles area; a $30.3 million state building in Contra Costa county; and a $23-million federal building in Fresno.
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