McWhinney projects include the 82,000-sq-ft Rangeview Four Crop Production Services building, with completion slated for June. The firm is also working on plans or designs for three more 40,000-60,000-sq-ft Rangeview office buildings.

“The cost of construction right now is at an all-time record low,” Jensen says. “We bid the Rangeview Four building to five contractors and it was 25% lower than what was budgeted for. If we had more buildings and we could build, we would. It is the ultimate time to build.”

McWhinney will break ground this spring on one of the few multifamily residential projects in Northern Colorado, the $45-million, 303-unit Lake Vista luxury apartment complex at Centerra. A low Loveland multifamily vacancy rate of about 4% and available HUD financing made it the right time to build, Jensen says.

“You've got guaranteed financing with HUD at a time when it’s very difficult to get financing,” he says.

Michael Gifford, executive director AGC of Colorado, agrees that public projects remain strong while private markets such as retail, office and lodging are stagnant.

“Public work has been flat or slightly up a percentage or two, while private work in ’09 was down quite a bit, and it’s projected that the general trend is going to continue in 2010,” he says.

Gifford sees another trend, as well: Northern Colorado businesses have adjusted their business practices to stay in the game. 

It’s being done “through learning, joint venturing, partnering and through being a sub when you are normally a GC,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to re-communicate or re-market what you do.”

Michael Masciola, COO and senior vice president of the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp., has been tracking business relocation trends in Larimer County and says there could be some demand for new construction.

“The trend that we're seeing now is that 67% of companies looking to relocate want to move into an existing building; another 11% will consider either existing or new,” Masciola says. “Only 22% are looking to build new.”

Dutch wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is a good example of a specialized industry that required new construction for the firm’s 2008 Windsor wind turbine blade factory, he says.

“That relocation put Northern Colorado and Denver on the map for a number of other foreign companies that are looking to invest and put facilities within the United States,” Masciola says. “I'd say 50% of those folks are looking to build new buildings.”

A glut of commercial space has created a market for increased remodeling projects, says David Shigekane, director of business development and marketing of the Fort Collins-based Neenan Co.