Commercial Construction costs rise 12.8% in a year
Some projects âin jeopardy of being put on hold,â one contractor says Casey Port In December, developer Joe Cordaro received bids totaling $6.95 million for an apartment and commercial project planned on Eighth Street in West Des Moines. Three months later, the project was rebid. The cost? $7.72 million, an 11% increase from the first bid. “The cost changes were insane,” said Cordaro, principal of West Des Moines-based Benchmark Real Estate Group. “If developers can’t absorb the costs, we have to go back and reengineer the plan to cut that cost out.” The huge spikes in material costs for residential and commercial projects are affecting all sectors of the nation’s construction industry. Between April 2020 and February 2021, construction costs for nonresidential projects have increased 12.8%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The National Association of Home Builders