Data center construction is one of the healthier segments of the commercial construction market and this region has really gotten in on the action. Yahoo plans to expand an existing facility in upstate New York, and New Jersey is a popular site for data centers because every millisecond matters in online trading, and it's just across the Hudson River from Wall Street's investment firms. Construction continues on the World Trade Center site and a new mega-project broke ground this year in the Big Apple, the Gotham West four-tower complex on Manhattan's West Side, which will add 1,240 new rental units.Two big airline terminal retrofits started up in 2011, the expansion of the Delta terminal at JFK International Airport and a smaller expansion project at USAir's terminal in Philadelphia. Philadelphia (14%) and New York (9.6%) sport two of the lower downtown vacancy rates in the nation, according to Grubb & Ellis' 2Q 2011 data. Wind power may figure into the region's construction plans down the road, as a massive wind farm partially backed by Google off the coast of New Jersey and Delaware is in the planning stages.

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