Content area
Full text
While things look good for Manitoba's costruction industry right now, it's the future that has industry experts worried.
Construction volumes have rebounded to levels reached just before the 1982 recession and will probably hit $750 million this year, up from $690 million in 1986. Unemployment is down, running at 38.7% at the beginning of April, compared to 45.7% at the same time last year. Indications are that unemployment levels will continue to decline this year, perhaps reaching 12% by September. That would be the lowest level at that time of the year since 1980.
"But unemployment is always a record of the past and present, not the future," says Gervin Greasley, executive vice-president of the Winnipeg Construction Association. While there's lots of activity in the construction sector right now, "If you look beyond that, there's speculation about how strong the market will be and how long it will stay," says Greasley.
Most of the work on the $80-million Portage Place development will be completed by the fall; Martin Bergen's $65-million Fort Garry Place will be wrapped up by the end of next year; both the $35-million Investors Syndicate building and the $9-million Royal Winnipeg Ballet building will also be completed this year. "The biggest job we have left is Limestone," notes Greasley, and work on the northern Manitoba generating station will continue until 1990 --though 85% of the value of the contracts have already been awarded, and the total cost of the project has been reduced to $1.73 billion from the original $3-billion estimate.
There is talk of a large project, valued at about $60 million for the corner of Portage and Main, but negotiations are still continuing between the developer, The Bentall Group of Vancouver, and the Toronto Dominion Bank, which is rumored to be the major tenant. An announcement on this project, which would see the demolition of the Child's Building and the Nanton Building, was expected...