Building in New York Demolishes Other Cities

It's expensive to build in Chicago and Atlanta but nowhere near as expensive as it is to build in the Big Apple.

By: John Noble

It comes as no surprise to hear that NYC is the most expensive city in the country in which to build office space. However, what does come as a shocker is that when compared to Chicago and Atlanta, two of the largest cities in the country, NYC costs more than 3 times as much. According to a report released by the New York Building Congress and the New York Building Foundation, the average cost to construct a single square foot of office space in a Manhattan high-rise can exceed $400. That doesn't include the cost of the land on which the building sits, or the “air rights” that many high-rises have to lease from the buildings below them. The prices to construct office space in the city have increased over 30 percent between 2004 and 2008, and are expected to increase until at least 2010.

In Chicago and Atlanta, neither of which are slouches when it comes to the number of high-rise developments within their borders, the cost to construct that same square foot of office space ranges from $120 in Atlanta to $150 in Chicago. With numbers like these, its no wonder that the number of new construction high-rises in Chicago exceeds that of NYC.

Costs in NYC are only expected to rise, considering new legislation in the works to combat the recent construction accidents suffered at NY construction sites. The City Council is considering major overhauls to the inspection policies and procedures that relate to crane construction in the city. Depending on the Council's decision, costs to erect a high-rise crane in the city may increase dramatically.