City Grill

Michael Roman 
Principal and Owner
C2 Design Group

Firms in the Schenectady-Albany-Troy region see residential construction as a still solid market, Roman says.

“Multifamily housing and affordable housing projects continue to be a trend for the greater Capital District [despite developers’] earlier concerns about market saturation,” he says. One reason for this is “a greater emphasis being put on carbon-neutral buildings.” 

Roman notes that “owners and developers are incentivized to compete” for Buildings of Excellence project funds from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) “in the state’s third round of competition.” 

The funding requires buildings to “achieve a carbon-neutral performance while being beautiful and functional and providing healthy, safe, comfortable and resilient living spaces for their occupants,” he explains.

On the flip side, current market issues could make completion of these projects risky, Roman says. “Supply chain and inflation issues could make it challenging to source replicable materials or consistent pricing,” he notes.