ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603200051
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
The Roanoke region's commercial construction industry may struggle during the next three to five years, but it should prosper after that, according to an official of the firm designing many of the region's major projects.
"We're optimistic in the long term, pessimistic in the short term," said Stephen P. Clinton, a senior vice president of Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern Inc., who spoke to about 50 people at a forum on economic issues Tuesday. The event was sponsored by the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and Davenport & Co. of Virginia.
Clinton said he is concerned about those firms involved in commercial, industrial, institutional and infrastructure projects. Hayes, Seay is one the nation's largest engineering and architecture firms and frequently a designer of major bridge, defense and health care projects.
Such firms face obstacles in coming years created by the change from a defense-driven economy to one dominated more by civilian projects, he said. Also, the budget stalemate in Washington, federal government shrinkage, corporate "re-engineering" and opposition to new and existing taxes are having impacts on companies providing business services, Clinton said.
For the long term, he said, the outlook is brighter because, if the national debt can be lowered, some money that now goes to pay interest can be channeled into new projects. In addition, corporate investments in worker training will keep productivity rising, creating cash to fund more projects.
Other speakers at the meeting had these comments:
The banking industry is finding bank examiners "much more cooperative and constructive with their criticism" but faces difficulties getting its reforms through Congress, said Clark Owen Jr., president and chief executive officer of Salem Bank and Trust.
Economic developers in the Roanoke Valley and unidentified company representatives are privately discussing potential business expansions that could create 200 to 300 jobs and channel $30 million to $60 million in investment in plants and equipment to the area, said John Williamson, vice president for rates and finance at Roanoke Gas Co.
The U.S. economy is unlikely to have another recession before 2000 because the Federal Reserve will keep the expansion going, corporate profits are healthy and, contrary to some reports, consumers are not excessively overextended, said Kenneth Gassman Jr., a retail analyst at Davenport & Co. of Virginia in Richmond.
The Roanoke Valley had 13 health maintenance organizations in 1995, compared with three in 1994, and they are helping control health care costs, said R. Devereux Jarrett, chief executive officer of Physicians Care of Virginia P.C., a Roanoke-based medical practice.
No flat tax proposal is likely to pass in the "short term," said J. Patrick Budd of Budd, Ammen & Co. in Roanoke.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB