Orange County’s largest commercial construction companies had solid growth in revenue, jobs, and work backlogs last year, despite a relatively small number of mega projects to call their own.
The 30 largest commercial construction companies doing work in OC increased local operations revenue by 16% during the past year to $6 billion, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
That’s nearly a $1 billion increase over revenue reported in last year’s list, which included three fewer companies.
The list ranks companies by revenue from OC operations over the past year. This week’s edition has 23 companies that reported year-over-year revenue increases, including eight of the top 10 whose combined revenues represent about two-thirds of the list total.
Five others reported declines, and the remaining two entries were Business Journal estimates.
• The Newport Beach office of St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos. was one of the few large construction companies to report a decline in business last year but still did enough to retain the No. 1 position with $1.1 billion in revenue reported in the past year, down 19% from a year earlier.
The company reported recently working on the 88,000-square-foot Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University and a ground water replenishment system for the Orange County Water District.
• The Costa Mesa office of Clark Construction Group LLC in Maryland stayed at No. 2 with $767.2 million in revenue last year, up 73%.
The company worked on what was arguably the most notable local building to open over the past year, the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, or Artic, next to the Honda Center and the Orange (57) Freeway.
• Rounding out the list’s top five were Snyder Langston, with $452.6 million in revenue, up 159%; Turner Construction Co. at $436.9 million, up 85%; and Hensel Phelps, with $388 million, up 5%.
The $6 billion total for the 30 companies is the most reported here since 2011, when area construction businesses benefited from a number of big-dollar projects, such as the $550 million expansion of John Wayne Airport and the $1.1 billion expansion of the Disney California Adventure theme park, in addition to federal work and several large hospital-related projects.
Few blockbuster contracts have since taken place here, particularly when compared to other parts of California.
Only two of the 31 largest construction starts in the state last year were in OC, according to a report by trade publication ENR California.
It ranked the $135 million Great Wolf Lodge hotel and water park being built in Garden Grove No. 29 and the 200 Spectrum Center office tower in Irvine, which is valued at $130 million, No. 31.
Turner Construction is heading up the Great Wolf project, and Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Co. in San Francisco is the contractor for the Irvine Company office development, which will be the tallest office tower in the county.
Hathaway Dinwiddie does not have an office in Orange County and was not included on the list.
A similar trend played out in 2013, when only two OC projects—a water recycling plant in Irvine and a sanitation department project in Fountain Valley—made the trade publication’s list of California’s largest construction starts.
The biggest commercial construction project to break ground in California last year, according to ENR’s listing, was the $5 billion, 175-acre campus being built in Cupertino for Apple Inc.
The closest local project to an Apple campus is a multibuilding headquarters planned by Broadcom Corp. in Irvine. A first phase of about 1.1 million square feet broke ground in March. It’s scheduled to be finished by late 2017 or early 2018, according to the chipmaker.
• The local office of DPR Construction, which is No. 7 on the Business Journal list, is building the Broadcom campus, whose estimated cost is about $875 million, factoring in land and relocation costs.
DPR boosted its backlog as a result of the contract. It said it was awarded $964 million in contracts during the past year, a nearly 160% increase from a year earlier.
The company, which has also worked on facilities for other area biotech and life science companies, had the largest percentage growth in its backlog of any company among the top 10 on the list.
The companies on the list reported winning about $7.8 billion in contracts during the past year, up nearly 14%.
The backlog is the highest reported on the list in more than six years.
Construction companies appear to be growing their ranks in preparation for the new work. Those on the list reported employing more than 5,100 in OC as of May, a 30% increase from a year earlier.
