At a Fairfield County Business Journal roundtable in early December, a half-dozen real estate experts agreed that affordable housing is the key to helping area businesses recruit talented young professionals.
It appears builders get it.
As 2011 neared a close, permits for new housing in Fairfield County were up 12 percent from a year earlier, according to the most recent data on file with the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development. The Fairfield County increase occurred despite an overall 36 percent decline in permits statewide, which has had a significant impact on the state”™s construction sector.
It is one of multiple stimulus programs ”“ both manmade and otherwise ”“ that have benefited builders throughout the year, including:
- ongoing projects authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and other federal programs;
- a depreciation bonus program on leasehold improvements and other purchases for commercial buildings;
- punishing winter weather that unleashed a blizzard of repair business last spring; and
- the twin arrivals of Tropical Storm Irene and then the October nor”™easter that did so anew.
Employment up slightly but wages lag
The sector needs all the help it can get ”“ construction employment has hovered around 50,000 jobs since the start of 2010, down from about 69,000 at the peak of the last cycle in 2007. The Connecticut Department of Labor estimated that employment jumped more than 3 percent in October, however, which it attributed to repair work from Hurricane Irene and unseasonably warm weather.
Still, that has not been enough to boost average weekly earnings in the construction sector, which were up less than $2 between October of this year and last even as other industries made major gains in average earnings.
New residential developments
Multiple big developments in Fairfield County could keep builders busy in the upcoming year. In Stamford, Building & Land Technology L.L.C. continues its rapid development of Harbor Point south of Interstate 95, even as RMS Construction Inc. readies a new residential development on Washington Boulevard.
In Danbury, Toll Bros. is pushing ahead with the Rivington development on the city”™s west side, which could eventually include hundreds of units. The Home Builders Association of Connecticut awarded Toll Bros. its “best townhouse community” HOBI award for the Summit at Bethel, overlooking Danbury”™s eastern slopes. A. Pappajohn Co. took the HOBI award for best mixed-used development for its Saugatuck Center in Westport and RMS was lauded for producing the “best rental community” for its building on Washington Boulevard in Stamford, which it sold earlier this year.
Awaiting the fate of the depreciation bonus
Even as residential construction has boomed in Fairfield County compared to the rest of the state, builders have cause to worry given the uncertain future of a federal tax law that allows companies to write off 100 percent of the costs they incur in performing leasehold improvements and buying equipment.
At deadline, Congress had yet to act in extending the full depreciation bonus another year with the current perk scheduled to be cut in half when the calendar flips to 2012.
“That has given people more of a reason to go out ”¦ and invest,” said Bill Conron, a Norwalk resident and managing partner for Citrin Cooperman.
