Big Projects Follow New Rooftops

Rise in Residential Construction Triggers Mall Expansions, New Schools

By Thomas York

Construction will start later this year on a $125 million education center for the Clovis Unified School District. The project will include elementary, middle and high school buildings on one campus (rendering courtesy of Edwin S. Darden Associates).

The Fresno-Clovis metro region has enjoyed a four-year boom in new housing construction, and 2004 was one of the best years ever for construction and sales.

The surge has helped bolster the area's commercial, industrial and educational construction markets.

John Mahoney, director of the Real Estate and Land Use Institute at California State University, Fresno, said new homes sales hit a record 3,500 in 2004. From 2001 through 2003, new home sales averaged 2,400 units annually, he said.

"The new home market has been robust for the past four years," Mahoney said. "Supply has not kept up with demand. Previously, we had eight years of down markets, so we have had quite a bit of pent-up demand."

From 1990 to 2000, the number of Fresno County residents grew by 19.8 percent, outstripping the state's 13.8 percent growth rate during the decade. The county, anchored by Fresno and its neighbor, Clovis, added 131,917 residents, growing to 799,400 residents compared to 667,490 residents a decade earlier.

Thirty percent of the homes are going to "equity refugees," buyers from Southern California and the Bay Area who are selling their more expensive homes and moving to Fresno and Clovis where homes cost one-quarter to one-half as much.

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The surge in new housing has forced regional K-12 educators to build new schools to keep up with a growing student population.

Fresno-based Harris Construction, for example, is serving as a general contractor or providing construction management for a number of school building projects in the San Joaquin Valley.

"Half of our work is school projects," said Tim Marsh, president of Harris. "It's a result of a number of school bond issues being passed over the past year."

Marsh said his firm will start construction this year on a $125 million education center for the Clovis Unified School District, designed by Fresno-based Edwin S. Darden Associates. The project will include elementary, middle and high school buildings on one campus.

Other Harris projects include the $20 million, nine-building Orange Cove High School in Orange Cove, which is scheduled for completion in August, and the $10.7 million, 53,000-sq.-ft. Teague Elementary School in Clovis, which is scheduled for completion in May. Fresno-based Hastrup & Hyde Architects is the designer for Orange Cove and San Francisco-based SIM Architects is the designer for Teague.

Marsh said he expected school jobs to keep his workers busy through the end of 2005, when K-12 construction activity should taper off.

Harris is also the general contractor for a new $25 million, 115,000-sq.-ft. Pacific Gas & Electric Service Center in Fresno, which will serve the growing population in the metropolitan area. Integrated Designs by Soman of Fresno is the architect for the service center building.

Michael Prandini, president and CEO of the Building Industry Association of the San Joaquin Valley, which mainly represents homebuilders in the Fresno-Clovis metro area, said he expects all segments of the construction industry to remain strong because new residents are flooding into the market.

That growth is spurring demand for such services as suburban malls and shopping centers, as well as larger retail and commercial projects.

"We used to lag about 18 months going into an upswing and lag about 18 months going into a downturn," Prandini said. "That's not the case anymore. We're now enjoying growth along with the rest of the state."

He said the influx of out-of-area residents has especially helped retail construction.

For example, Macerich, a Santa Monica-based mall owner, is adding 100,000 sq. ft. of restaurants and shops to its 873,000-sq.-ft. Fashion Fair Mall in Fresno.

In Clovis, city planners have approved a 150,000-sq.-ft. expansion of Sierra Vista Mall and construction of a 550,000-sq.-ft. big-box mall that will be anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Both projects are expected to get under way this year.