Most impressive construction boom: Toronto, New York, Miami, or Seattle? (best, compared)

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Not the city proper. These numbers are from HUD and are based on permits issued for new construction from January 2009 to November 2019.


Units Permitted in Multi Unit Buildings 2009 - Nov 2019, city proper

1. NYC: 204,933 units
2. Los Angeles: 96,487 units
3. Houston: 79,168 units
4. Seattle: 70,896 units
5. Dallas: 63,810 units
6. Chicago: 49,132 units
7. DC: 41,265 units
8. Atlanta: 37,401 units
9. San Diego: 34,628 units
10. Miami: 34,172 units
11. San Francisco: 32,812 units
12. Phoenix: 28,991 units
13. Philadelphia: 22,246 units

Single Family Homes Permitted 2009 - Nov 2019, city proper
1. Houston: 46,562 SFH
2. Phoenix: 23,611 SFH
3. Los Angeles: 16,358 SFH
4. Dallas: 14,751 SFH
5. San Diego: 8063 SFH
6. Philadelphia: 7121 SFH
7. Atlanta: 6281 SFH
8. Seattle: 6182 SFH
9. NYC: 4372 SFH
10. Chicago: 4258 SFH
11. DC: 2665 SFH
12. Miami: 743 SFH
13. San Francisco: 457 SFH

As you can see, Miami is actually near the bottom of the list for permitted residential construction for the last decade. If you look at 2014 to 2019 then Miami is 9th but DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, LA, and NYC are still more.



More than Miami, but probably less than Seattle overall.

Thank you. I was just about to go here next. This tells a more comprehensive picture about the “booming” taking place in each of these cities as well. Not just office construction/absorption.

[masssachoicetts]

Trafaglar,

Boston:
1. John Hancock - 792ft - 1976 BUILT
2. The Pru - 749ft -1964 BUILT
3. One Dalton / Four Seasons - 742ft - 2018 BUILT/FINISHING CONSTRUCTION
4. One Bromfield - 709ft - 2026 - PIPELINE
5. Winthrop Square Tower - 692ft - 2022 - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
6. Millenium Tower - 685ft - 2016 - BUILT
7. South Station Tower - 677ft - 2024 - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
8. One Congress - 647ft - 2023 - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
9. Federal Reserve Building - 614ft - 1976 - BUILT
10. Aquarium Garage Tower - 606ft - 2025 - APPROVED
11. One Boston Place - 601ft - 1970 - BUILT
12. One International Place - 600ft - 1987 - BUILT
13. One Hundred Federal Street - 591ft - 1971 - BUILT
14. One Financial Center - 590ft - 1983 - BUILT
15. 111 Huntington Ave - 554ft - 2003 - BUILT
16. One Sudbury Condos - 547ft - 2020 - UNDER CONSTRUCTION / TOPPED OFF
17. Hub On Cuseway Office - 525ft - 2020(1) - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
18. One Post Office Square - 525ft - 1981/2022 - BUILT AND UNDER CONSTRUCTION, will be completely gutted
19. One Federal Street - 510ft - 1971- BUILT
20. Hub On Causeway Residential - 509ft - 2021 - TOPPED OFF

Other Notables
23. Garden Garage - 485ft
30-44: Raffles Boston - 406-449ft (Im getting a range of numbers from different sources on this one)
30-44: One Clarendon - 420ft
35-44: Back Bay Station - 413ft
45-54. Fenway Pike Parcel - 345ft
45-54: BU Data Science Book Building - 340ft?
55-59: Kenmore Square Hotel - 300ft?
And countless (Roughly ~70 in the U/C, Approval, Pipeline phases) through Seaport, Cambridge Xing, and South End buildings between 200-400ft tall

Only one tower in the pipeline (Bromfield) is likely not to be built. But I darkened all the construction from 2015-2025. By 2025 the skyline in Boston will expand greatly.

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by Trafalgar Law

No.

I used to live in the DMV (the name given for the Washington D.C. metropolitan area) just prior to moving out of the United States. I lived in the DMV area in the beginning of the 2010s decade, back when it really was on a torrid pace of construction and development activity and likely led the country at it. That was back when you could walk around the city or drive around the metropolitan area and in certain pockets it would have 20 construction cranes all lined up in one place. It's still one of the heavyweights in construction activity but now has several other peers that match it, from what I can tell at least.

Anyhow, none of that is why I left it out of this thread. I left Washington DC out of this thread because I have already given it a chance to pit itself against the likes of Miami and Toronto.

Do you not recall? Let me give a tour down memory lane, you were an active participant in that thread.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/city...r-toronto.html

This new thread and topic is for New York, Seattle, and Miami to pit themselves and their metropolitan areas against Toronto and see how they stack up and vice versa, for Toronto to pit itself up against New York, Miami, or Seattle. Or for Miami to pit itself against Seattle, Toronto, and New York. You get the picture. Technically I have already done a Washington/Miami/Toronto thread with a similar topic but that discussion was mostly Toronto versus Washington with denizens of Miami hanging back and watching the other two go at it.

Fair enough, I don’t mind the comparison. I was just stating people can’t sleep on the city with no skyline, it’s changed drastically, and so have the metro suburbs. I’m impressed by each of the ones you listed in this thread. Actually I’m on a plane to Miami/FLL this Sunday, and expect to be even more impressed once I land. It’s been a few years since I’ve touched down.

[2Easy]

Originally Posted by Joakim3

Seattle would take the infrastructure award as it's building dedicated heavy rail, which is unheard off in American cities right now

Toronto takes the high-rise/skyscraper award by a landslide in terms of how much it's throwing up. I read a recent metric that it has more cranes than NYC, LA & Chicago... combined.

Miami & NYC are a happy medium of both

You sure about that? I'm pretty sure that Seattle is building light rail. And DC, NYC, and LA are building heavy rail recently, under construction and upcoming. Especially DC and then LA.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by 2Easy

You sure about that? I'm pretty sure that Seattle is building light rail. And DC, NYC, and LA are building heavy rail recently, under construction and upcoming. Especially DC and then LA.

BART is also expanding to San Jose right now, that's heavy rail

[2Easy]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

BART is also expanding to San Jose right now, that's heavy rail

Nice!

Only 11 metros in the US have heavy rail and 4 are expanding. Not too bad...

[mhays25]

Seattle is building grade-separated light rail that's operating like heavy rail.

Vancouver belongs in these discussions. They're always building condo towers by the dozens. Since many are at suburban nodes they don't get as much attention as they would if they were mostly centralized.

[CXT2000]

Originally Posted by Trafalgar Law

Incorrect.

The Miami/Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area would by far be my favorite place in the North American continent. Really the only place I get any sort of excitement about when I think of North America in general. Not Toronto, though I like and respect Toronto a good deal. I think Toronto is a very good city and well on its way to becoming a world class global city.

As for inclusion. I think all of these other places that are being pit against Toronto can stand as peers to Toronto on this topic on an overall basis (meaning well beyond just highrise and skyscraper construction). For one, the Southeast Florida Metropolis has construction and development activity everywhere, it is not simply contained to the core of the city-proper. It is a widespread phenomena there. It's not all skyscrapers either, as someone else mentioned, there's Brightline and a large stream of midrise buildings to fill in the gaps in the urban fabric. Miami's on a whole new level this decade and is easily one of the fastest infilling cities with one of the highest rates of densification both in the city and metropolitan area. There's a lot of infrastructure improvement and expansion projects there too and lots of cool new developments pertaining to entertainment there.

Secondly, New York in raw numbers can absolutely go head-to-head with Toronto. Possibly even exceed it. New York is one of the preeminent locations on the planet for supertall construction and it has plenty of infrastructure projects to go along with it too. New flood mitigation plans. New distinct train stations (i.e. that Santiago Calavatra PATH station near the WTC complex). New distinct structures (i.e. the Vessel). It has a little bit of everything going on.

Third and finally, there is Seattle, which is reaping the benefits of its ongoing tech boom. It's redefined urban living in the core of the city and has spilled into the suburbs in a very big way (e.g. Bellevue is one of the hottest construction submarkets in the United States for both under construction and in the pipeline).

1. It already is a world-class city, more so than Miami. more companies, better education, economically, population, air connectivity, etc..
2. Toronto's boom is also in the metropolitan area and rivals Miami's boom. I lived in both cities and I can tell you that right off the bat. One metro area and city is seeing declining population growth, while one is consistently exceeding 120,000 a year. Furthermore, every major suburb has been building major downtowns and expanding rapidly. if the municipality of Mississauga was in MDC, it would be the largest city there.
3. Brightline is okay, really nothing to write home about. It connects to other cities and not the city of Miami. Toronto on the other hand, has great transit (by N.A standards) and has nearly $30B in proposals. I'm glad the province uploaded responsibility and let's hope they start building ASAP.

As for NYC, yeah it's superior, no brainer there.

[popka]

Many people probably don't like voting on polls that show who voted for who. This is a nice thread though.

[popka]

At the same time showing who voted for what city probably keeps people more honest with less homering.