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More than $5 billion worth of major construction projects in New York City have been delayed or canceled in recent months because of the downturn in the economy.
Some projects have been affected by troubles in specific sectors, like the airline or energy industries; others are proposed office buildings no longer considered viable in the city's soft commercial market.
The projects include a new terminal at JFK International Airport being built by American Airlines (delayed and downsized), a second trading floor for the New York Stock Exchange (canceled), a new Guggenheim Museum downtown (canceled), a new office tower above the Port Authority Bus Terminal (in limbo), and a proposed power plant in Astoria, Queens (delayed).
"If you look at the full range of design and construction activity in New York, what you find across the board are slowdowns-more in some areas than others," says Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress. "There's a downright depression in interior design, because no one's renting anything."
City construction employment dropped to 113,050 in January 2003 from its peak of 124,500 jobs in January 2001. Nonresidential construction contracts dropped 58% in the first two months of 2003 compared with the same months in 2002, according to the Dodge Analytics unit of McGrawHill Construction reports.
"There's a lot of momentum...