YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Nonresidential construction across the Mahoning and Shenango valleys neared $600 million through October 2024, substantially lower than the same period the previous year, the executive director of the Builders Association of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania said Wednesday.
However, last year’s numbers included the completion of Ultium Cells LLC’s manufacturing plant in Lordstown, which accounted for $1.2 billion, Kevin Reilly added.
“Without that project, we would have been at $515 million” in 2023, he said. “So that’s a little more comparable.”
Reilly presented an update Wednesday on construction activity throughout the area during the Builders Association’s annual meeting at the Lake Club in Poland. The Builders Association represents signatory contractors in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
Reilly reported that the number of man-hours worked through the period in 2024 was also lower by 11.9% compared with the previous year. Over the past 13 years, the construction workforce has been buoyed by large projects such as Ultium Cells’ $2.3 billion battery cell manufacturing plant and Vallourec’s $1 billion pipe mill in Youngstown, he added.
“If you take those projects out, we’ve never gotten back to those hours where we were in the late 1990s and early 2000s,” he said.
Reilly said much of the year was spent negotiating five new contracts with the building and construction crafts. “They came in looking for three-year agreements,” he noted. In the past, bargaining agreements would span four to five years, but labor over the past several years has pressed for shorter-term agreements. “That was a big push this year,” he said.
Five local craft unions – insulators, cement masons, glaziers, operating engineers and plasterers – all negotiated new agreements in 2024. Of those, the insulators, glaziers and plasterers received three-year agreements, while cement masons and operating engineers negotiated four-year agreements, Reilly said. On average, tradesmen received a 3.5% wage increase, as inflation remained an issue, he noted.
Meantime, the organization stepped up its outreach initiatives, organizing events in partnership with Youngstown State University, expanding its pre-apprenticeship efforts, and working with the local trades to boost awareness of careers in building and construction.
“We’re continuing to grow our pre-apprentice career connection program,” said Gary Hartman, association services director. “These programs continue to develop and are adding components with the help of our joint apprenticeship committees” to explore further education in bricklaying, cement finishing and sheet metal.
The Builders Association also launched its first pre-apprentice competition, inviting students registered in career connection classes to participate, Hartman said. Eighteen students entered submissions in the contest.
Other events in 2024 included the 24th annual YSU estimating contest, in which 16 students engaged in a daylong organized project estimating competition, Hartman said. “It not only provides real-world stress, but allows students to learn about commercial construction, estimating and the takeoffs,” he said.
Among the other highlights of the year was the Skilled Trades Expo held in September at the Canfield Fairgrounds, Hartman added. “It marked a record number of 6,000 students from eight different counties in Pennsylvania and Ohio,” he said.
Reilly added that, to his knowledge, the expo is the largest event of its kind in Ohio. “When we report the number of students that attend, people are shocked,” he said.
The Builders Association also elected new officers Wednesday. They are: Dave Collins, owner of Diamond Steel, president; Chris White of Boak and Sons, first vice president; Mark Kasula of United Contractors, second vice president; Jerry Harper of Connell Inc., third vice president; and Matt Benson of Straightline Interiors, treasurer.
Pictured at top: From left are Chris White; Jerry Harper; Jason Santini of Jim Santini Builder Inc., past president; Dave Collins; Mark Kasula; and Matt Benson.