City Grill

Ronnie Samuelian 
President
Provost & Pritchard Consulting Group

Fresno, like much of California’s Central Valley, is busy right now. “We continue to see significant workload in all of the services we provide,” Samuelian says. “There have been concerns of a slowdown in the housing market, but so far private sector work remains steady.” 

That said, the region is not immune to the challenges currently facing the industry as a whole; staffing is a priority and supply chains remain strained.
“Construction costs remain at their highest levels,” he says. “That’s forcing many clients to value engineer or reprioritize their needs.” 

One critical concern is drought. Despite recent heavy rains, water concerns are a priority for the Central Valley. One key variable is the state’s requirements for declining groundwater conditions to be corrected by 2040. “This will dramatically change not only the agricultural production of the valley, but will also greatly impact the many communities that are dependent on the agricultural economy,” he says.

Still, with more than a year of work in backlog, the immediate future is promising. “The outlook for next year is better than I’ve ever seen,” he says.