With more people coming to Amarillo, general contractors steadily increase business

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - As Amarillo continues to grow, residential and commercial construction businesses are staying busy this year.

Residential and commercial building is up in Amarillo as more people and businesses are looking to grow.

Amarillo bankers say with the many residential and commercial construction projects going on this year, it will bring job growth and will play a part in boosting the economy.

“Real estate will sure help in 2021. Housing boomed last year, that’ll carry over in to 2021. And you’ll start to see those construction numbers coming back as they’ve been getting stronger and stronger. There are a couple big projects going to Amarillo that will help, and you’ll see that carry through, all of next year,” said William Ware, president of Amarillo National Bank.

“Most of the commercial projects that were completed in 2020 were started in 2019, or at least they were already planned for in 2019. We didn’t see a lot of new commercial projects in 2020. We’re already seeing a renewed appetite across the entire city for new commercial projects in every industry,” said Mikel Williamson, president and CEO of Happy State Bank.

Last year commercial building was down, and only the projects that were set to build from previous years, were being built. This year commercial building is steadily increasing with more confidence from businesses and people coming to Amarillo.

Amarillo is already seeing more construction this year, with many big commercial projects in progress and on the way.

“We are seeing, like in our office, a little bit of a slowdown where we don’t have the back log that we had the last couple years. But we’re still seeing a steady continual flow in of people that are still looking to put in that next restaurant or build that next building. And then we also do residential. So, we’re still seeing some good growth on residential where people are still moving and progressing in that next season of life like they always have. But once again, we need Amarillo to be friendly to our small businesses and for people that want to come here and for out-of-town growth to come in to Amarillo,” said Cole Stanley, owner of Cole Stanley Builders.

Stanley says in 2018 and 2019 there was a ton of work commercially in Amarillo. In 2020 with the political climate and the pandemic, there was not much commercial construction going on here.

He continues to say they expect the commercial building to increase steadily for the next six months with many big commercial projects coming to Amarillo, but for his company, he does not predict a record year in commercial building.

With low interest rates last year, residential building was up and it continues to grow this year but it comes with some challenges for Amarillo general contractors.

“I know all of our suppliers are working hard to have our supplies available to us. Unfortunately, we are having some pretty difficult times just building homes these days. As much as it’s been a blessing to be very very busy, it’s been a curse all on its own because we can’t seem to get supplies here in a reasonable amount of time. It’s definitely created some challenges for us,” said Raymond Roberts, owner of Wyben Homes in Amarillo and Texas Panhandle Home Builders Association 2020 president.

Robert says this year the challenge for Amarillo residential construction companies will be getting materials to build with since supplies have been down.

You can find the full Amarillo Economy Forecast report from Amarillo National Bank here.

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