San Diego Metropolitan - Swarming The Skyline

Bosa. Roel. Taylor Ball. JMI Realty. Western Pacific. Lankford. DPR. Manchester. Clark Construction. Intracorp. OliverMcMillan. McKinnon. Lambert. Barnhart. These developers and contractors, and others, are at the forefront of redefining the Downtown lifestyle.

When nearly two dozen cranes dot a skyline being modified right now by the addition of 4,100 homes and a new ballpark, it takes more than heavyweights to carry the load. It takes hundreds of subcontractors, ranging the big electrical firms like Dynalectric to small fencing concerns such as Area-West Fence to make it all work.

“Construction is a basic industry that has the trickle down effect,” says Peter Hall, president of the Centre City Development Corp. “You build something and it employees hundreds of people. The ballpark alone at this moment has close to 600 people working on it.”

Since those working these jobs live throughout the county, the economic boom is disbursed to far-flung suppliers and employees.

“Of all the (business) activity that goes on Downtown, very little of it is really recycled Downtown,” Hall says. “Almost the entire amount, whether you are talking about steel or concrete, or wall coverings and stereos. Almost all of its is going to be spent throughout the economy of the region.”

Planners see at least five more years of more than a dozen cranes working the skyline at any given time, and it will probably run longer. So the contractors, and subs and suppliers, are here for the long haul.

With that in mind, San Diego Metropolitan debuts this month an ongoing feature, “Swarming The Skyline,” that will highlight the small and mid-sized companies building the Downtown of tomorrow.