Sluggish construction forecast
The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, whose four-state district includes Ohio, offered little encouragement in its Jan. 12 assessment of the construction segment of the regional economy. Some samples:
New home construction was generally flat, at a low level, during the past six weeks and on a year-over-year basis, with most sales occurring in the move-up buyer categories. Contractors expect construction to remain sluggish during the winter months.
General contractors continue to work with lean crews, and no hiring is expected in the near term. Subcontractors continue to cope with very difficult industry conditions.
New projects generally fall into the health-care category, with some industrial and infrastructure work. Contacts are uncertain about business conditions through 2011.
DAYTON — Requarth Lumber Co. sold wood to Wilbur and Orville Wright for their pioneering airplanes. The company survived the 1913 flood, two world wars and a devastating 1972 fire.
The family-held business is enduring the continuing slump in homebuilding as the economy struggles to improve, but survival has come at a price. Requarth Lumber’s staff now is 21 employees, half of the 42 it had years ago when times were booming in construction.
“We are operating a lot leaner and we probably will going forward,” said Alan Pippenger, Requarth’s president.
Harold Requarth, an executive whose tenure with the company dates to the 1950s, said he couldn’t recall a construction slump similar to the one gripping the nation now.
“It’s worse than anything I’ve seen,” Harold Requarth said. “The housing industry is next to dead.”
The company has sharpened its focus on serving construction professionals — including home remodelers, deck builders and facility maintenance staff — to keep its niche, Pippenger said. Requarth is also investing in a new loading dock, expanding its offerings of “green” building products and is committed to the Saturday operating hours it started up in March 2010 for the first time since the 1970s, Pippenger said.
Lumberyards across the country are under stress, and many have gone out of business.
84 Lumber Co., a Pennsylvania-based company, has closed 11 of its stores in Ohio and said this month it will close three more in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Florida. Industry officials noted the closings of lumberyards in Dayton, Fairborn, Springfield and Washington Court House in recent years.
Industry leaders don’t expect substantial business improvement until 2012 or even 2013, said Lynn Schwarz, executive vice president of the Ohio Construction Suppliers Association. Many lumberyards have reduced staff and operating hours, she said.
Residential remodeling, school construction and some commercial construction have been the best sources of business recently, Pippenger said. Requarth is here for the long haul, he said.
“We’re stubborn,” said Pippenger, a great-great grandson of company founder Frederick A. Requardt, a German immigrant whose family “Americanized” its name to Requarth. “This is our community, our market.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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