Current Temperature: Optimistic with a chance of Planning
When you have your headquarters in Central Minnesota, and it’s the coldest part of the winter, one of the first things you do each morning is check the temperature. If you don’t like cold weather, this is an act of pure courage.
Lately we’ve been taking a different temperature here at Legacy—the temperature of the post-Covid recovery. We are by no means economists, but we see a lot of indicators that encourage us.
The first thing that caught our eye was the phrase “pent-up demand.” It was a reference to the Roaring 20s during the last century and how the 1919 pandemic created a very robust economic recovery due to people putting their plans and spending on hold for the year. Sound familiar?
Here’s the article:
- What 1919 Teaches Us About Pent-Up Demand (National Public Radio)
Here are two more:
- Vaccines’ rollout and pent-up consumer demand brighten U.S. economic outlook (LA Times)
- Eruption ahead: Pent-up demand will drive the economy (REjournals)
In addition, the January Dodge Momentum Index—which tracks the institutional and commercial building outlook—went up by 3.1%, with the commercial outlook up by 9.9%. That index jumped around a lot in 2020, but an almost 10 percent increase is worth some attention because it’s the highest since the pandemic began.
“The Momentum Index, issued by Dodge Data & Analytics, is a monthly measure of the first (or initial) report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which have been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year.”
About six months ago, we encouraged our customers to think about planning for the future. We hope you did. We are now collectively on the doorstep of the future, a future economy that will probably be volatile and unpredictable and, to our eyes, very optimistic. You probably only have a few more months of planning before the economy takes off again. If your plans include a building—one of our tension fabric structures—we hope you:
- Have contacted us
- Are close to finalizing your plans
- Are ready to make some very optimistic investments in your organization’s future
Here’s how we at Legacy can help you in the next six months.
Our project and design consultants will walk you through the process of getting a quote. It’s very preliminary, but knowing a few things about your building project will give them the tools they need to go forward. Having a quote in hand is a confidence builder. Now you can at least begin to talk about your budget, what features are absolutely required and some possible solutions you might not have thought of.
Estimating and Engineering
This is the part of the process where the serious planning begins. Our team will walk you through the phases of the plan including timelines, designs, approaches to different features and how it all fits together. They will discuss what’s possible and how to get there. At Legacy, all our buildings are customized to your needs, so this dialogue will be both educational and encouraging. You will begin to see what we can do for you as well as how our structures are unique to the industry.
Get some preliminary sketches
Our designers do a series of design drafts before you have the one for sign-off. That’s because plans often change as the project advances and evolves. Communication between you and our designers is facilitated by our project and design consultants, and they are excellent communicators.
Our designers use CAD software that is the industry standard for the metal building industry. It’s used by thousands of companies. Consequently, the drawings you see will be standardized, so other engineers will be able to look at them and instantly understand them. Our designs are customized, but how we communicate them is universal.
Develop a Checklist
As part of your planning, we will encourage you to develop a checklist of elements that need to be part of the plan leading up to construction. Some of these might include:
- Foundation requirements
- Contacting local building regulators
- Local building codes
- Local safety requirements
- Other trades that may be involved in the project
We at Legacy want to be ready for the upcoming year and the anticipated economic recovery. Moreover we want our customers to be ready, because our continued success is connected to your success. Let’s talk, let’s plan and let’s get ready to put the economy back on it’s feet again.