South Florida construction starts fall in January

South Florida construction began the new year slowly with new starts falling in January by double-digits, year over year, according to a recently released report.

Total construction starts fell 21 percent to $863.6 million in January. Residential construction fell 24 percent, to $573.3 million. Nonresidential fell 15 percent to $290.3 million, according to Dodge Data & Analytics, a Hamilton, New Jersey-based construction data analytics firm.

Nonresidential construction includes office, retail, hotels, warehouses, manufacturing, educational, healthcare, religious, government, recreational and other buildings. Residential construction includes single-family homes and multifamily housing, according to Dodge.

In December, total construction starts for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties rose 6 percent, year over year, to $802 million. A 5 percent annual drop in residential construction starts, to $426 million, was offset by a 24 percent jump in nonresidential construction starts, to $375 million.

For the full year of 2020, total construction starts fell 25 percent to $9.6 billion. Nonresidential construction fell 30 percent to $4.3 billion. Residential fell 20 percent to $5.3 billion, according to Dodge.

New construction loans secured so far this year in South Florida include a $6.2 million loan for a 43-unit multifamily project in Miami’s Little Havana, and a $23.6 million construction loan for Time Century Holdings to begin the first phase of its renovation of a downtown Miami building. Also, Toronto developer Great Gulf scored a $110 million construction loan for La Clara, an 83-unit, 25-story development in West Palm Beach.