Whiting-Turner Lends its Hands to $5.7 Billion in Active Projects, Mostly Under Construction

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company (Baltimore, Maryland) once again cracked Engineering News-Record's top 10 contractors for 2017, buoyed by projects for household names in technology, universities and food production. Industrial Info is tracking $5.68 billion in active projects involving Whiting-Turner, more than half of which are under construction and all of which can be found in just four industries: Industrial Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical & Biotech, Food & Beverage, and Power Generation.

The highest-valued project among those under way is Google Incorporated's $1 billion expansion of the Southlands Data Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (Mountain View, California), hired Whiting-Turner as general contractor on the project, which kicked off in early 2016 and is expected to more than double the size of the complex with the addition of a four-story, 808,355-square-foot building. It is expected to wrap up early next year. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

But nearly half of the total investment value for projects involving Whiting-Turner is attributed to the Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry, the bulk of which are to be found at universities across the country. They include:

• University of Kentucky's $265 million Collaborative Science Research Building #2 in Lexington, Kentucky, which is set to be completed this summer and includes "open concept" laboratories for interdisciplinary research and studies; see project report
• Stanford University's $252 million research center addition in Palo Alto, California, which is set to wrap up late this year and house a variety of life-science disciplines, including neuroscience, cell and molecular biology; see project report
• Towson University's $184 million addition to its science complex in Towson, Maryland, which is set to be completed in 2020 and support STEM programs (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics); see project report

The Food & Beverage Industry also has a strong number of projects featuring Whiting-Turner, although they have a much lower total investment value. Most involve the manufacturing and distribution of grocery items, including:

• Lidl Dienstleistung GmbH & Company's (Neckarsulm, Germany) $100 million Grocery Distribution Center in Perryville, Maryland, which totals 754,000 square feet and is in its final stages; see project report
• Walmart Stores Incorporated's (NYSE:WMT) (Bentonville, Arkansas) $50 million dry-storage distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas, which is set to wrap up late this year and feature more than 1 million square feet of storage space; see project report
• Barilla America Incorporated's (Parma, Italy) $45 million expansion of its pasta-manufacturing facility in Ames, Iowa, which is set to wrap up soon and feature two new production lines for gluten-free pasta; see project report

Whiting-Turner's work in the Power Generation Industry represents more than $1.6 billion, although this is divided between two renewable-energy projects that remain in their early stages: Solar Wind Energy Tower Incorporated's (Annapolis, Maryland) $1.55 billion Wind Energy Downdraft Tower in San Luis, Arizona, which is expected to feature 25 wind-driven turbines, each with a capacity of 50 MW, for a total output of 1,250 MW; and American Organic Energy's (Westbury, New York) $68 million waste-to-energy plant in Yaphank, New York, which is designed to process 160,000 tons per year of bio-solid food waste into methane biogas. For more information, see Industrial Info's reports on the wind tower and waste-to-energy plant.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.