July 23, 2015

RLB crane count falls, but Seattle still has 42

Photo by Benjamin Minnick [enlarge]

Crews are erecting the second of two tower cranes for the 23-story Embassy Suites hotel near CenturyLink Field. Another crane is going up three blocks away for Weyerhaeuser’s new headquarters.

Rider Levett Bucknall's latest North American RLB Crane Index shows 42 fixed cranes in the Seattle area, a drop of nine from the consultant's inaugural report in January.

This is the second crane report from RLB and it said the decrease from November, when the cranes were first counted, is due to a shift from housing to hotels and mixed-use projects.

The latest crane count was conducted in May and covers the area between Northgate and West Seattle west of Interstate 5.

RLB said commercial projects in and around the South Lake Union neighborhood are on the rise, and using eight cranes. Mixed-use projects account for five cranes.

The firm said developers are rushing to build offices, retail and housing for Amazon, Expedia and other tech company workers.

An RLB spokesman said several projects geared to removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct will be catalysts for more development — and more cranes.

The report also shows that nine cranes are being used for local education, health care, hospitality and transportation-related projects.

RLB predicts construction will continue to grow in major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially for high-rise apartment and condo projects.

Less than half of the cranes in Seattle now are building residential towers, but that's not the case in other cities. Toronto has 110 active cranes and 91 of them are working on housing.

RLB says downtown Portland is seeing a boom in construction, with several residential towers underway in the South Waterfront and Pearl districts.

The Rose City has 14 cranes downtown, eight at commercial development sites. Civil, federal/government and transportation projects make up the rest, with two cranes each.

According to RLB, crane suppliers in Portland are starting to notify general contractors that cranes needed in 2016 must be reserved now.

Other cities are also busy. In Calgary, there is a backlog of 50 proposed high-rise developments; San Francisco has 26 cranes up, with more than half of them for residential towers in the SoMa neighborhood; and New York City has 70 cranes working on residential and mixed-use projects.

In its report, RLB cited data from Corcoran Sunshine that predicts 5,377 condo units will come online this year in New York City — about twice as many as last year.

Boston was the only other city with a decrease in tower cranes over the past six months. The report says the drop was due to projects finishing, but five cranes were erected for new projects.

RLB tracks cranes in 13 cities in the U.S. and Canada. It produces the index every six months.

Related Stories:

• Seattle crane count finds 51; half are for housing projects  01-22-2015