The current economic climate has clearly had an adverse effect on funding for new construction in specific sectors. The demand for commercial buildings has been weak and is projected to decline through 2009, with the largest drop-off in the office and retail sectors. Despite these challenging market conditions and gloomy projections, Suffolk Construction has continued to experience steady growth and opportunities, particularly in the education and healthcare sectors. The strength of these institutional sectors should not be too surprising considering the current state of the education and healthcare industries nationwide. As these institutions continue to compete for students and patients, they understand the importance of offering new state-of-the-art facilities that can help differentiate them from their competition. Some recent statistics validate the recent push to build new facilities. American School & University magazine predicts that education construction will continue at a healthy pace, with more than $93 billion projected to be spent through 2010, and Building Design & Construction magazine recently reported that although healthcare spending increased at only 6% in the past 12 months, it is expected to resume at a 10% plus expansion through 2009.
Suffolk is well positioned to take advantage of these education and healthcare construction trends mainly because of our successful specialized Education and Healthcare Strategic Business Units (SBUs). Suffolk Education and Suffolk Healthcare are distinct groups consisting of employees who are not only committed to working exclusively in these sectors, but are also experienced partnering with clients that have unique sector needs and project requirements.
Suffolk SBUs are structured to provide clients strong leadership in these sector markets. Each SBU is led by an SBU manager with in-depth sector experience, a strong portfolio of sector project work and a clear understanding of the nuances of working with clients from that particular sector. Reporting to each of these SBU managers is a team of project executives, project managers, superintendents, estimators and other construction professionals.
Suffolk Education
Construction projects in the education sector are often challenging because of their proximity to classrooms, student housing, and campus gathering areas. Because of these challenges, a contractor's preconstruction planning, experienced crews and understanding of academic client demands are critical when working on or around school campuses. Suffolk Education has a reputation for exceeding academic client expectations by offering creative solutions that keep the project schedule on track while minimizing campus disruptions. For example, on past academic projects, the Suffolk Education team has actually readjusted its entire project schedule to coincide with school vacation weeks and final exam periods to ensure that construction would not interrupt normal campus activities. The team often works unorthodox hours to avoid disrupting students and faculty during peak hours. By understanding the needs of the academic institutions and their students, we are able to deliver a quality project on budget and on schedule, without hassles or major disruptions.
Suffolk's expertise, relationships and positive track record in the education sector have led to several high-profile school projects that continue to strengthen our reputation in this space. Suffolk Education is in the midst of a design/build, adaptive reuse of an historic Boston building to student residences for Suffolk University. Suffolk University is seeking LEED Silver certification on this project. Suffolk Education is also working on three distinct projects for Brown University.
Suffolk Healthcare
Without adequate planning early on in the construction process, dust, noise and vibration caused by heavy construction activity can disrupt hospital patients and staff. We understand that the key to minimizing disruption during healthcare projects is to address issues early on during the preconstruction phase, long before the first shovel touches the ground. The tight schedules and sensitive surroundings consistent with healthcare construction projects require teams like Suffolk Healthcare that are knowledgeable and experienced with this level of work and understand the unique needs and requirements of hospital officials, staff and patients.
Our Suffolk Healthcare team is strengthening its strong relationship with Boston Medical Center by delivering multiple projects on the hospital campus. This summer the team will complete a 1,870 s/f unit at BMC to house a new CyberKnife robotic radiosurgery system. The team is also currently constructing a new electrophysiology laboratory for BMC and renovating its existing heart laboratory.
Construction management teams that have a proficiency in servicing specialized clients will clearly be in the best position to succeed.

Mark DiNapoli is an executive vice president and general manager with Suffolk Construction, Boston.