Construction Industry

Design Pro Resource: Our OTS Showroom and Training Room

A&K Painting Company’s Operations Training Showroom (OTS) training room and showroom are excellent resources for design professionals to utilize due to its design and product display, ideal location and optimal learning environment. Design professionals across the Carolina’s and beyond can partner with A&K Painting and utilized our OTS for their training events or just use the showroom to develop ideas from our vast design and product display.

Location, Location, Location.  A&K Painting’s OTS is located in southwest Charlotte, a short drive from our main office.  It is also only about 20 minutes from uptown Charlotte and only a few minutes from the main interstates, which makes it easily accessible from anywhere in the area.

Optimal Training Environment.  Our training room has been developed to provide a world class learning experience by utilizing the most up-to-date technology, so it is a first-rate resource for your training events and CEU needs.

Design and Product Display.  Design professionals can gain inspiration from our many colors, textures, and other designs by incorporating our showroom into their training events.  We’re able to provide full size tests and samples of new paints, wallcoverings and other decorative finishes.

A&K Painting Company’s OTS has much to offer all design professionals, including architects, commercial designers, space planners or others who have CEU needs.  Check out our OTS showroom and training room webpage for more information and please contact us if you have any questions.  We look forward to partnering with you soon.

Construction Backlog Indicator a Predicting Factor for NC ?

Construction Industry Backlog - A&K Painting

According to a North Carolina Construction News article, Associated Builders and Contractors report that its “Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI) remains unchanged at 8 months from the third quarter through the fourth quarter of 2012; however, it is up 2.4 percent compared to a year ago”.

That being said, what is the CBI and why does it matter that it was flat in 2012?  “CBI is measured in months and reflects the amount of construction work under contract, but not yet completed by nonresidential contractors, which basically means it demonstrates the positive or negative level of construction in the U.S.  Since the CBI didn’t decline, nonresidential construction spending could possibly increase later in the year of 2013.  Also, according to Anirban Basu, an ABC Chief Economist, “backlog in the commercial construction category increased for a third consecutive quarter, a reflection of ongoing recovery in consumer spending, including tourism and growth in professional services employment.  The year over year expansion in infrastructure is reflective of growing construction spending in categories such as power, utilities and transportation”.

Even though this is an increase in the CBI is for the entire U.S., it could still be a predicting factor for construction in North Carolina, specifically Charlotte, since there was expansionary growth in construction spending in transportation and a growth in professional services employment.  Charlotte is a service-centered city and is growing rapidly, so it will need higher construction spending in the transportation sector in the near future.

A&K Painting Company Wins Two National Awards

A&K Wins Two National Awards

A&K Painting Company has won both the Industrial Interior Painting award category and the Commercial Wallcovering award category, in the 2013 Picture it Painted Professionally awards program of PDCA, the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, a national painting contractors trade association.  The PIPP Awards, the national awards to honor the very best of the painting Industry, pays tribute to the work of professional painting and decorating contractors from across the United States.

Andy Robbins, CEO of A&K Painting Company, after receiving the awards today at PDCA’s national convention in St. Louis, stated.  “We’re honored to receive these two national awards. I’m very proud of our team. These awards attest to our team of skilled, highly trained people, our systems and the excellence we provide our clients.”

The Industrial Interior Painting award showcased A&K’s completion of over one million square feet of surfaces at the new Caterpillar Heavy Mining Equipment manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  The complex project required enhanced safety management, extensive pre-project planning and reliance on field operations management of several crews and night work. View the project portfolio.

The Commercial Wallcovering award featured the Stone Theaters Sun Valley project, a 14 Screen Multiplex in Indian Trail, NC.  A&K’s expertise with vinyl and fabric wallcovering was utilized with installation of over a dozen different wallcoverings.  The project also included multiple paint and wood finishes. View the project portfolio.

Press Release

Banks Increase Lending for CRE

Banks Increase Lending for CRE

According to Mark Heschmeyer, in a CoStar Group article, “banks increased their overall lending for commercial real estate in 2012 with total CRE loan balances outstanding at year-end up 3% year-over-year.  Investment property loans outstanding showed the biggest gain, ending 2012 up 11% from 2011 and multifamily loans outstanding were up 7% year-over-year”. 

The most likely reason for this increase in lending is because the amount of delinquent CRE loans and foreclosed properties continue to fall significantly-dropped 29% year-over-year, so banks are more optimistic about the future of CRE.  While banks, such as PNC Bank and JPMorgan Chase, have increased their CRE lending by more than 13% year-over-year, some are remaining more conservative, such as Wells Fargo, with only a 1.45% increase year-over-year.  Regardless of the disparity existing between the banks, CRE lending is still moving in a positive direction across the board on average, so this is a good sign for the future and growth of commercial real estate.

 

North Carolina’s Global Investors and the World

North Carolina’s Global Investors and the World

North Carolina is focused on having global investors and foreign companies bring their operations facilities to the state. Beside its business friendly atmosphere, according to D. Lawrence Bivins, in a North Carolina Economic Development Guide article, this is possible because its “climate, port access and convenient reach to millions of American consumers attract global investment. It’s geographic and demographic diversity allows foreign companies to operate in any corner of the state”.

North Carolina cares about culture and business, and tries to recruit foreign business leaders, by forging an alliance between private and public partners, which results in a much stronger effort. But international recruitment is only half of their two-pronged global economic strategy; North Carolina also focuses on giving its educational programs an international edge. North Carolina has highly competitive graduate school programs that bring the most talented people from across the globe to the state, and they hope to provide them with the tools to succeed in an international market. In doing so, they hope to retain these highly intelligent individuals and continue to attract more to the state in the future.

By attracting these global investors and retaining internationally educated graduates, “North Carolina collected more than $1 billion in foreign direct investment across 86 projects in 2010”, according to Site Selection magazine. North Carolina is already home to approximately 850 international companies and continues to recruit more. This is extremely good news for the construction industries and overall growth for the state’s economy. More direct investment from international companies means more business for construction companies, since they will need new facilities built. This influx of foreign investment also creates overall growth for the economy since more money will be invested directly into the state, and more people will be attracted to live here since there will be more opportunities for success.