Cautious Optimism In Construction Sector

IRVINE, CA-The development sector is showing cautious optimism moving into 2014, and capital spigots are beginning to open across the board, Dennis Stejskal, VP of product management for Sage Construction and Real Estate, a division of Sage North America, tells GlobeSt.com. After the dearth of development post-recession, demand for construction appears to be ramping up, he adds.

“What I'm hearing from our customers is in alignment with guarded optimism,” Stejskal says. “They're all feeling pretty good about the future and comfortable about steady growth. There are still some things out there that could slow it, like the federal budget—which isn't really resolved yet—and oil and gas prices, but there is scattered optimism.”

As GlobeSt.com reported last week, Sage North America, which supports more than 40,000 construction firms and real estate customers across North America, has launched a partnership with software provider eTakeoff to help estimators on construction projects produce more accurate estimates while vying for bids. The software provides estimators with a new collection of electronic takeoff products within the Sage portfolio of estimating solutions and helps provided much-sought-after efficiencies that construction companies need to stay on top.

The development community is overall “very excited about energy,” particularly in Texas and the upper Midwest, according to Stejskal. “They're excited because it's driving business across the board, from hotels to infrastructure sites.”

Construction firms are once again willing to begin investing capital in their businesses, whether in the form of people, equipment or other areas, but again, this investment is being done cautiously since many companies got burned during the recession. “Through the recession, a lot of these companies got extremely lean in the overhead sector,” says Stejskal. “They got down to bare-bolts minimum and learned to get things done with fewer people.”

However, he adds, demand seems to be generating at a faster pace than any other functionality, and estimators believe there will be more development activity out there in the near future. “If you follow some of the leading indicators like architect billings, it shows there is more bidding going on and more opportunity out there.”