What’s going on with Las Vegas’ construction industry?
Las Vegas’ construction industry is having a solid year of growth and could continue the trend despite headwinds, according to a global construction consultant.
According to a new report from Rider Levett Bucknall, 11 construction cranes were in operation in Clark County as of the end of August. That’s one more crane than February and two up from August 2023. The high water mark for construction activity was 12 in February 2023.
Kevin Mitchell, head of RBL’s Las Vegas office, said most of the growth in major construction falls into the mixed-use category with five cranes, which is ahead of the traditional hospitality sector with three.
“We had increases in hospitality and mixed use, but we also consequentially had decreases in a bunch of other sectors of the construction industry as well, such as civil and public assembly projects, those both came down,” he said. “I would say that nationally, activity and pricing for construction has continued to increase, but increase at a decreasing rate. So the percentage change, quarter to quarter, is flattening out in Las Vegas and the city is trending slightly below the national average.”
Compared to 13 other cities in North America, Las Vegas ranks behind Denver and Washington, D.C. (both with 13 cranes) and much larger cities such as Toronto which lead the list with 83, followed by Los Angeles (42) and Seattle (28).
The overall U.S. construction industry is now banking on President-Elect Donald Trump’s pro-business stance and lowered interest rates to help spur the market and kick growth into next year, according to Deloitte’s 2025 Engineering and Construction Industry Outlook, but admitted headwinds are still apparent.
“The industry had its fair share of challenges (in 2024),” said the report. “High interest rates and price inflation continued to affect the residential and commercial segments. The challenging lending market and ongoing weakness in billings of architecture firms are expected to continue through the year.”
Las Vegas has a number of high-profile construction projects slated including RBL noting that the Clark County Commission has approved construction permits for the Las Vegas Executive Airport, the first phase of a planned Spaceport, which will include a runway, taxiway, private jet terminal and hangers.
Mitchell said other major construction projects, the renovation of the closed Mirage casino-hotel as well as the construction of a guitar-shaped Hard Rock hotel on the same site and the Bally’s resort and Athletics baseball stadium on the site of the former Tropicana casino-hotel could be added to Las Vegas’ crane index sometime soon. He also noted a potential NBA-ready arena and other possible projects related to the Brightline West high-speed rail line which is expected to open in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“Whatever of those projects is first to market would be the one that is going to get the most benefit because they will be able to sign up all the trades people at a beneficial rate than the people who come afterwards,” he said. “The resource pool (of construction workers) here has started to skinny out even more and that’s going to be pushing up prices undoubtedly.”
Employment challenges
Las Vegas continues to struggle with employment in the construction industry, as Nevada’s overall rate has dropped from August of this year (124,800 workers) to 123,700 in September. Overall, however, the U.S. has seen an 8.8 percent gain in construction employment in the past 12 months, according to an Associated General Contractors of America report.
Forty states added construction workers in September across the country from one year ago, however month over month the industry appears to be flat as only 24 states and the District of Columbia added construction jobs between August and September of this year.
The industry is hampered by a lack of new workers coming into the field, said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist, and a lack of workforce training and educational programs is keeping a lid on growth.
“It is great that four out of five states have added construction jobs over the past year,” he said. “Even more states would be seeing gains if there were enough qualified workers available to fill job openings.”
Overall, the market appears relatively healthy across North America, said Mitchell, given the roller coaster ride of the pandemic appears to be calming in regards to construction data across the board including wages, workers, cost of supplies and raw materials.
“I’m generally optimistic about the overall scene,” he said noting that a continued drop in interest rates will help fuel new projects and help get others off the ground. “That creates a new level of certainty and the better sense of certainty people have for the future the easier they’re going to be willing to invest and take the risk of putting their money into doing something.”
Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.