Before the COVID pandemic hit, the American Institute of Architect’s Consensus Construction Forecast Panel was projecting just a 1.5% increase in spending on non-residential buildings and the Engineering News-Record forecasts a 1.6% increase in the Building Cost Index.

As the economy starts to reopen, there is just too much ambiguity and not enough data yet to fully understand the complete impacts of the pandemic, but early indications point to a significant decline in the institutional (14% loss) and commercial (7% loss) sectors that traditionally build parking structures.

With the potential reduction in material costs, the reduced labor shortages, and increased competition, parking structure costs in 2020 may actually decrease in some regions.