Local construction costs continue to climb

By: Stephanie Basalyga, The Portland Tribune

PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) --- In his 37 years in construction, Joe Hughes, owner of Portland-based Joseph Hughes Construction, has lived — and worked — through more than a few boom cycles in the industry.

The current one, he says, is a lot like previous ones, with one big exception. As the Portland metro area has climbed out of the Great Recession and the pace of construction has amped up, problems associated with shortages of prime land, skilled workers and close-in areas to dump rocks and soil and demolition debris have created challenges for contractors and their subcontractors looking to keep projects on track.

But the addition of the Trump administration's tariffs on building materials coming into the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, China and the EU has added a new pressure to the mix.

"If it was just a busy market, the price (of materials) would nudge up but still be kind of predictable," Hughes said. "But with tariffs, you don't know what they're going to be moment to moment."

In the past few weeks, one highly touted project — the mass-timber building called Framework — has been shelved for now due in part to escalating construction costs. Another — Portland State University's 4th and Montgomery project — has been scaled back in size, also because of increasing construction costs. Even renovation projects aren't immune to the impact of rising costs.

"It's a crazy time out there," Jake Sly, business development director for R&H Construction, said. "It's a real challenge for everyone, whether they're participating in a new construction project or a renovation."

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