Construction companies talk about their 2012 hiring expectations

This year, the Charlotte office of project management and construction company Lend Lease Inc. increased its staff by about eight.

Next year, the office will get even bigger, with plans to hire another eight or so workers as managers and superintendants in the Charlotte area, said John Nicolay, Charlotte executive vice president for the New York-based company.

In what could be a hopeful sign for the Charlotte-area construction industry, other firms in the region say they, too, plan to make hires next year.

Some companies, like Lend Lease, say employees who were let go because of cuts will be hired back.

But don’t expect every construction company here to follow suit. Some say their employment levels are poised to stay the same in 2012, as they wait to see in what direction the economy will head.

A Mecklenburg Times poll of 10 construction companies in the area shows that about half plan to increase the size of their payrolls. The others don’t expect layoffs but aren’t counting on adding more employees, either.

Charlotte-based general contractor Edifice is among those planning to hire.

“We have some work coming our way, which will create the need for more people,” said Vice President Gary Creed. “One of our core markets, the church sector, is picking back up now that banks seem more willing to lend. This is freeing up some pent-up demand. Things that have been on the shelf for a while are coming to life.”

In October, Edifice broke ground on a new 51,000-square-foot, $10 million addition to Calvary Church in south Charlotte.

Creed said the positions Edifice plans to fill next year are likely to include some of the 15 or so workers the company laid off in 2009 and 2010.

Edifice has 57 employees.

The additional workers would come in handy for projects slated for construction early next year, Creed said. Among them: the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s new $37 million, 96,000-square-foot Portal building.

Creed said Edifice has other projects in the planning stages, but he declined to go into detail.

Over the past few months, Lend Lease, which employs about 125 in Charlotte, has started a couple of small industrial and manufacturing expansions, including at the BMW manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, S.C., and Corning Inc. in Midland, N.C., Nicolay said. He declined to give details about the projects.

While Edifice and Lend Lease have plans to add workers, Darryl Kellough doesn’t.

Kellough, co-owner of Charlotte-based Southside Constructors, which focuses on the automotive retail, industrial, education, health care, religious and the multifamily sectors, said that after laying off nearly 20 people over the past few years, he isn’t expecting to make any hires in 2012.

The company employs about 20.

“We’re just trying to maintain what we have,” he said. “It’s a very complicated industry right now. We’re more risk managers than we’ve ever been before. I see good people going out of business every day. It’s not about their ability to plan or forecast. It’s just the environment they’re in. It’s a tough market.”

Benjamin Wilhelm, Southeast region president for Indianapolis-based Shiel Sexton, said that despite having new projects in the works, his company has no plans to add to its dozen or so Charlotte employees. The company employs about 20 in the Carolinas.

Wilhelm said Shiel is scheduled to break ground in February on a $10 million project at the Charlotte Housing Authority’s Parktowne Terrace, a six-story elderly apartment building on Fairview Road. Shiel will manage the construction of two additions at the site and renovate the building’s interior.

Shiel has been able to avoid laying off local employees by deploying staff to other parts of the country to work on various projects, Wilhelm said.

“That’s the story of our industry right now,” he said. “If you’re in the construction industry, you have to be pretty receptive to traveling.”

Ambrose Dittloff, president of Charlotte-based Carocon Corp., said the company might add to its 35-employee roster next year.

He points out, though, that 90 percent of Carocon’s work is subcontracted, “so we have an indirect affect on the construction labor market.”

Carocon focuses exclusively on apartment and multifamily construction, which Ditloff said is showing signs of improvement: The company is scheduled to build about 1,500 units through the Southeast, including in Charlotte, Raleigh and Charleston and Greenville, S.C.

“Apartment building is really at the top of the real estate heap right now,” Dittloff said. “We were able to weather the storm without laying people off, and we’re getting busy again. So as we hire more subcontractors, hopefully that will translate into Carocon hiring three or four more people. “

Bob Webb, CEO of Charlotte-based Myers & Chapman Inc., has no plans to increase his work force in 2012. This year, he said, he hired back about 10 people the company laid off because of the recession.

Hiring former employees seems to be a trend in the construction industry. The employees the Charlotte office of Lend Lease hired this year had been part of cutbacks the company had to make because of the downturn, Nicolay said.

Webb said his company is cautiously optimistic about next year.

“But I’d be hard-pressed to say we’ll bring on more people,” he said. “I believe we’ll stay about the same.”

This year, Myers & Chapman, which focuses on commercial and industrial buildings, has worked on about 35 new projects, compared with approximately 25 last year. The company employs about 40.

Ike Grainger, vice president of marking and development for Charlotte-based Shelco, said his company laid off about 20 workers because of the recession. It now employs about 45 in Charlotte and has no plans to add employees next year.

Grainger said Shelco focuses on various sectors — office, retail, industrial, health care — but over the past few years the company has shifted its focus to schools and government buildings. In July, Shelco completed construction on a 150,000-square-foot FBI building in south Charlotte, and the company is scheduled to finish construction in September on the $20 million Mosaic Village, a 120,000-square-foot, mixed-use project next to Johnson C. Smith University. Early next year, the company will break ground on the 286,000-square-foot Gaston High School, a $39 million project scheduled for completion in May 2013.

Similar to Shelco, Kansas City, Mo.-based JE Dunn Construction laid off about 30 percent of its work force in Charlotte after the recession, marketing coordinator Blair Smith said. The company hired about five people this year and employs 44 in Charlotte.

Dunn broke ground this summer on a new 22,000-square-foot campus at Sharon Presbyterian Church in SouthPark. The $6.5 million project is scheduled to open next summer. Dunn is also building a $30 million hospital in Hoke County.

Smith said the company might add workers in 2012 but only if the company lands new projects.

Boykin can be reached at [email protected].