Alaska • California • Hawaii • Oregon • Washington
This region is enjoying a rebirth in a several different
sectors. Building permits in San Diego; Los Angeles;
California’s Riverside County; San Francisco; Portland,
Ore.; and Seattle are all up more than 10%,
and a mix of renewables, airport construction and
data centers is fueling construction. McGraw-Hill Construction
says the biggest projects include a $1.1 billion expansion
of Los Angeles’s LAX airport and a $300 million retrofit of
San Diego’s airport;
a $730 million wind
farm in California;
a $180 million data
center for Facebook in
Prineville, Ore.; a $216
million wind farm in
Washington.; two $150 million data centers and a $350 million
gas-fired power plant in California. The news isn’t all good —
www.realtytrac.com says the 75,204 foreclosures in California
lead the nation and several major metros have vacancy rates
in their downtown or suburban office markets that top 20%,
including San Jose (28.9% downtown); Riverside-San Bernardino
(23.7% suburbs); San Francisco (24.9% suburbs);
and Orange County, Calif. (21% suburbs).
