City Grill

Mike Goodwin 
Operation/Service Manager in Southern Arizona
Climatec

Contractors in the Tucson area are “extremely busy,” Goodwin says, and  Southern Arizona has had larger construction projects in the last 12 months than in the same time period since 2013. Contractors have large backlogs and are looking for more employees, he says.

Large instate projects such as the TSMC semiconductor factory in Phoenix, the Meta project in Mesa and the Intel Fab projects in Chandler pay exceptionally well for skilled labor, he says, which increases prices and exacerbates the labor shortage. “Without enough qualified people on the construction team, the schedules for the project slide,” he says. 

The supply chain is finally normalized for most commodities and parts. Certain specialty items and electrical parts are still long lead, but the contractor teams have learned to communicate and plan for these, he explains. 

Goodwin expects solid revenue into next year, but he says the current rapid pace of bidding projects could slow. The following year is difficult to read, he concludes, because the presidential election could impact Arizona construction.