Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | June 7, 2021 | wbjournal.com T his spring, it's become the stuff of memes. Jokes about backyard projects being associated with extreme wealth, videos musing how a truck is moving a bed full of lumber down the highway without a security guard, clips bemoaning the unantici- pated expense of putting off last year a project that must get done this year. It's the lumber shortage, and it's gone viral. "is is like dinner table material for a lot of people," said Jared Lachapelle, vice president of preconstruction at Consigli Construction Co., based in Milford. According to an April report from the National Association of Home- builders, which indicated lumber prices have tripled during the pandemic, that increase over the last year has added nearly $36,000 to the cost of a new single-family home, as well as $13,000 to the market value of an average new multi-family home. e average con- sumer is, perhaps, most likely to see this hike in the aisles of their local hardware stores. e 2x4x8s Home Depot stocks, usually a few dollars a piece, for example, are currently retailing at over $7 a plank on the company's retail website. But the shortage – and its accompa- nying price hike – is only one piece of the puzzle. As Mas- sachusetts officially begins to mean- ingfully reopen aer over a year of pandemic-related economic lockdowns, the construction industry is being squeezed from several directions. One key pressure source not receiving as much attention is steel, said Peter Capone, Consigli's director of purchasing. "With regard to how much lumber we use in our projects, I don't want to say it's insignificant, but the materials and getting the materials weren't really the big issue," Capone said. "So we were more worried about steel and metal than lumber." Steel is a particular challenge for construction companies like Consigli, said Capone and Lachapelle, because the company errs toward commercial proj- ects where metal framing – versus typical wood framing in residential buildings structures – is the norm. "We're probably seeing about a 10% or 12% increase in the installed price of steel, but a lot of our commercial buildings, they've got 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 tons of steel that make up the structure of the building," said Lachapelle. "So, it can have a very, very noticeable impact impact [on] a lot of our clients' budgets." ese changing and oen increased budget figures are a point of regular conversation between Consigli and its clients as they map out how to bring builds to life. But, maybe surprisingly, the uptick in costs has not decreased demand for building projects, in general, said Lachapelle, even though the type of projects in vogue has slightly changed. Although companies are less likely to be renovating office spaces, for example, as white-collar workers parse a cultural shi around working from home, they might be instead focused on building out a laboratory building. But while clients are paying extra close attention to project timelines, some debating whether to delay builds so they can wait and see which way the building supply market swings, the appetite of the industry to build, Lachapelle said, hasn't slowed. "is is a lot of, sort of, pivoting that I BY MONICA BENEVIDES Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Jared Lachapelle, vice president of preconstruction at Consigli Construction Co. Peter Capone, direc- tor of purchasing at Consigli Construc- tion Co. New housing rising on Chandler Street in Worcester. The increase in the cost of construction material hasn't had a dampening impact on development plans. The demolition of the 1.8-million-square-foot Draper Mill in Hopedale has created the opportunity for businesses to reclaim construction material as prices for steel and lumber are spiking. PHOTO/GRANT WELKER PHOTO/MONICA BENEVIDES Building squeeze Lumber & steel shortages are causing construction costs to spike, even as the economy reopens

• Cover