|
|
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Deep Dive
Making the grade: Why school construction costs are climbing and projects are stalling
A roll call of some important education contractors finds labor and
material prices and complex design, health and technology needs are
putting pressure on the delivery of school builds.
Joe Bousquin
Feb. 14, 2020
When California-based C.W. Driver Cos. began work on the new
94,000-square-foot K-8 Cadence Park School campus in Irvine in 2016,
the overall construction costs came in at $475 per square foot.
But in 2019, as the firm started mapping out the construction of
Heritage Fields School No. 3, another K-8 campus for the Irvine Unified
School District, costs had surged to $598 a square foot.
That’s a jump of 26% in just three years, and it echoes a trend experienced around the country.
Basic algebra: costs are adding up
“Over the last few years, the cost increase per square foot has been
abnormally high,” said Jonathan Keene, senior project manager at C.W.
Driver, which specializes in K-12 and higher education construction.
“We’ve seen abnormally high increases in labor costs as well as huge
increases in material costs like structural steel.”
School construction costs aren't just rising in high-priced locales
like California. From Maryland to Washington State, school and
university construction projects are seeing cost increases that are
forcing school boards and university trustees to reconsider their
original plans or go back to the drawing board altogether.
In an extreme example at St. Paul (Minnesota) Public Schools, cost
estimates on 18 projects grew by more than 60% between 2016 and 2019,
according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press newspaper.
“In some of the bigger districts, where they thought they could do 30
schools, they’re now saying we can only do 18,” said Mary Filardo,
executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based 21st Century School
Fund, a nonprofit that supports and advocates for improved school
infrastructure nationally. “They’re definitely feeling it.”
On a national basis, school construction costs now range from a low of
$230 per square foot for a high school in Nashville, to a high of $558
in New York, according to construction cost consultant Cummin. Dan
Pomfrett, Cummin’s chief forecaster, said costs in the sector are up
around 15% over the last three years. While that’s in line with other
sectors of commercial construction, schools’ unique designs can lead to
higher overall price tags.
“Add in a gym, science building or magnet school, and it goes up from
there,” Pomfrett told Construction Dive. “There’s a lot of sticker
shock.”
Higher construction costs are being amplified at the university level,
too, especially as institutions compete for a shrinking number of
enrolled students.
“We're really seeing an arms race in higher education right now,” said
Ripley Bickerstaff, director of business development at Birmingham,
Ala.-based Hoar Construction, which specializes in university projects.
He points to two-story recreation centers with hanging, inclined
running tracks and 360-degree motion-capture systems in health sciences
departments.
“Whatever it's going to take to recruit students and get their enrollment numbers up, that’s what they want," he said.
|
|
|
|
