Tampa Bay area architects predict strong economic growth well beyond 2020 in AIA Tampa Bay survey

TAMPA, Fla. - Feb. 5, 2020 - PRLog -- Tampa Bay area architects continue to be highly optimistic about the region's development-related economy in the longer term, according to AIA Tampa Bay's Voice of Architecture Economic Outlook 2020, a survey of area architects that serves to predict the future for area real estate development and construction activity.

Similar to the results of last year's survey, Tampa Bay's architecture firms are seeing a continued increase in demand for their services, plan on hiring more employees, and predict substantial revenue growth – all signs that real estate development, a key driver of the region's economy, will continue to be hot in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Architects are experts on the longer-term future of the development-related economy because they are hired early in the development process, with projects often being completed two or three years after the architecture firm begins work.

In the survey, conducted by the Tampa Bay chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 77 percent of the architects expect demand for architectural services in the Tampa Bay area to increase in 2020 – up nearly 10 percentage points from last year. Also, 82 percent estimate that their organization or department will hire more employees in 2020, and nearly half anticipate revenue growth of more than 10 percent in 2020, also up nearly 10 percentage points from last year.

At the same time, the strong development-related economy creates challenges in attracting and retaining the talent needed to keep up with demand for services. For the second consecutive year, nearly all (98 percent) of the architects surveyed reported it's becoming more difficult to hire skilled workers.

The survey respondents totaled 71 area architects, half of whom are principals or managers. Nearly all respondents were from Hillsborough County (78 percent) or Pinellas County (16 percent), though many of the architects in the two counties work on projects throughout the region.

This outlook for continued growth in the Tampa Bay area matches the outlook for the South region of the U.S. shown by the Architecture Billing Index (ABI), which the AIA National Center compiles monthly as a leading economic indicator of U.S. construction activity.

Architects in the Tampa Bay area survey identified transportation as the top issue in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Polk counties.  The second-ranked issue in Hillsborough was infrastructure, while in Pasco and Polk counties it was housing. In Pinellas, transportation was such a dominant issue there was no significant second issue.