The wet winter is taking a toll on developers.
Heavy rain that started in October is adding time and money to condominiums, apartments and other construction projects going on around the county.
And, despite sunshine in early February, developers aren’t likely to get a break anytime soon. February and March, normally the wettest months, are projected to see above average rain, according to the National Weather Service.
So much for sunny Southern California.
“It really hurt us,” said James Camp, senior vice president of Voit Development Co., which is putting up 19 industrial buildings in Tustin. “The problem with rain is you have a week of rain and you have another week to dry out. For every week, you really lose two.”
Developers typically plan for rain in winter. But with Southern California’s mild winters, that planning is minimal. So this season’s rain,several times that of a typical winter,has thrown a wrench into construction schedules.
Heavy rain turns hard soil at job sites to mush, making it impossible to pour concrete foundations. And forget about putting up steel beams. They become slippery when wet, making work treacherous.
At stake for developers is added interest payments on construction loans, extra job site expenses and the prospect of having to wait longer to start recouping their own investments. Many said they’ve used up their allowances for weather delays. More setbacks stand to eat into profits.
The erratic weather comes on top of last year’s price hikes for steel and concrete, which also dealt a blow to developers.
It costs about 40 percent more to put up a five-story office building than it did two or three years ago when materials were cheaper, according to Tim Strader Jr., who heads the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, a trade group.
To build an empty office building, it costs about $90 to $95 per square foot, compared to $65 to $70 per square foot two or three years ago, he said.
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The full version of this story
is available in the Feb. 14 edition of the Orange County Business Journal.
