year, says industry expert Paul Hindo.
Royal LePage Commercial Inc.'s Hindo says most would-be technology builders are dipping into retail and institutional
projects to keep busy until high-tech business picks up again.
"From a commercial side of things, there are still enough irons in the fire to last us until the year's end. People will be able to
make a very decent living," he says, citing the airport and World Exchange Plaza expansions as two non-tech industry
drivers.
In addition, Hindo is expecting a major announcement regarding a downtown development and an equally significant
announcement from one of the area hospitals.
"Don't forget, collectively, the hospitals in Ottawa have identified $650 million worth of projects over the next five years," he
says.
Ironically, the hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space Nortel Networks and others are releasing back into the
market should also provide contractors with work.
"With the high-tech downsizing, a lot of space is coming back on the market, and people are not going to take it the way it is.
There's going to be a lot of renovations and redesigning," says Hindo.
Shirley Westeinde of Westeinde Construction expects to cash in on some of the retrofitting contracts. "Very seldom do
you get somebody moving into an office building and taking it as is. Invariably, there is some retrofit that has to be done."
As for her company, Westeinde believes there is enough business to last until the fall.
"We're still optimistic. We've got enough work on the go right now to keep all of our employees. We look like we're fine at
least up until September or October."
R.E. Hein Construction president Roland Hein says his company has enough business lined up to weather the slowdown.
With most of Hein's work coming from the retail and institutional sectors, he has not been hit as hard as some builders with
big tech contracts.
"Some of the guys that were going ballistic, such as PCL with the Nortels, might be affected by the slowdown. For us,
we're still motoring along at our normal pace."
When asked about how the economic slowdown has affected PCL, district manager Dwight Brown indicated there was no
need to panic.
"We've certainly not seen the demand from the technology clients that we were seeing. That has definitely slowed down,
but the economy with the SuperBuild projects and work coming out from Parliament Hill is still very healthy. There's no
reason for big panic," he says.
Arguably the city's biggest builder, PCL is forecasting a healthy industry for the next two years.
"There will be a lot of smaller projects," says Brown. "Maybe not the big Nortel and JDS projects we have been seeing,
but I believe it's going to be a healthy economy for the next couple of years."
Adding to the industry's optimism is a cyclical stock market, which traditionally heats up in the fourth quarter, says Hindo. With
an active stock market, technology contracts will presumably make a comeback.
