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Isle building
contracts decline
27 percent

The decrease comes despite
gains in residential business

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Star-Bulletin staff

The total value of contracts for future construction in Hawaii fell 27 percent for the first 11 months of 2000 compared with the same period in 1999, according to a monthly report.

The total value of those contracts was $1.27 billion, down from $1.75 billion in the first 11 months of 1999, according to the report from the New York-based F.W. Dodge Division of The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. The division is a national authority on the construction industry.

The company said the total value of building contracts for the residential market in Hawaii, including homes and apartment buildings, rose 38 percent, to $718.7 million though Nov. 30 from $521.3 million for the first 11 months of 1999. But nonresidential contracts, which include commercial, hotel, manufacturing and other buildings, fell 62 percent, to $281.4 million in 2000 through Nov. 30, vs. $748.5 million a year earlier. Meanwhile nonbuilding contracts, for such things as infrastructure, utilities, and communication systems, dropped to $270 million, off 44 percent from $481 million a year earlier.

For the month of November alone, according to F.W. Dodge, the total value of future construction contacts in Hawaii fell 42 percent, to $91.4 million from $158 million in November 1999. The month saw 18 percent and 15 percent increases in residential and nonresidential contracts, respectively, but a 74 percent drop in the value of nonbuilding contracts, the report said.