Commercial construction raises the boom.

• Position: North Carolina's construction industry - Industry Overview

Builders get plenty of work. The only question is, can they get the workers?

Commercial construction was one of the pleasant surprises of the 1994 economy," says J. Walter McDowell, president of Wachovia Bank of North Carolina in Winston-Salem. "We've seen strong activity in office buildings, apartment complexes, new shopping centers."

Indeed, the upswing was such that work outpaced workers in many areas. By fall, nonresidential construction appeared likely to exceed $3 billion for the year statewide, up more than 20% from 1993. With strong residential building competing for workers, contractors in the Triad, Triangle and Charlotte reported shortages of skilled labor. The $146 million new Charlotte Convention Center, scheduled for completion this winter, was thrown several weeks behind schedule when contractors ran short of masonry workers.

How broad was the 1994 rebound? Office, retailing, manufacturing, warehousing and institutional building all accelerated. Most was on a build-to-suit basis, but some industry analysts were surprised by the number of speculative projects.

One of the year's biggest payoffs for a spec project was on the 1,600-acre Rock Creek Center, east of Greensboro. Pass & Seymour/Legrand, an electrical-components company, paid $20 million for a plant, offices and acreage. Speculative building was under way in other parts of the Triad and in smaller cities such as Monroe, where W.F. Harris Development LLC launched a 256,000-square-foot complex next to Monroe Airport.

Tar Heel banks also contributed to the boom. They had strong earnings and set about spending them. Wachovia Corp. had the state's third-largest project in Winston-Salem. Its $80 million, 30-story headquarters will be completed this year. The $160 million Carolinas Stadium for the NFL Panthers in Charlotte, due for completion in fall 1996, was the state's biggest project. Four years after it was begun, the Charlotte Convention Center will open in February.

First Union Corp. set out to build a $34 million operations center in University Research Park in Charlotte, then decided to double the size of the project in September. It will be completed in 1996. First Union Mortgage Corp. was one of the anchor tenants in a $12 million renovation of the former Cameron Brown Building in Raleigh. NationsBank Corp. moved the first of 1,300 workers into its new $30 million office complex in High Point last fall.

Lenders expect commercial building to slow this year as new...