Midwest City Scoop: Construction Starts in Des Moines

Residential and institutional markets expected to post healthy gains this year

The commercial and manufacturing subsector is forecast to weaken, while non-building work declines sharply.

City Grill

Michael Tousley
Executive Vice President, General Manager
The Weitz Co.

“From Weitz’s perspective, our backlog is as strong as it’s been in a number of years,” Tousley says. “Some of that is related to a couple of projects that got pushed from late 2018 into ’19, but [we are still in the] midst of a big data center boom that continues. There’s been no real turndown in the data center world, so that’s something that’s been pretty remarkable for the last five-plus years. A bit of a pleasant surprise is the number of office projects that we’re involved in, three office projects underway, all private business, corporate projects.”

Firm in Focus

The Weitz Co.
420 Watson Powell Jr. Way, Des Moines
CEO: Kevin McClain
Employees: 1,450
Founded: 1885
Subcontractor Hires Weitz: Mechanical contractor Waldinger Corp.’s $21-million new corporate office and production facility is being built by Weitz. The two companies work together often.