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“Downtown, right now, we’re coming out of a big build. We have the arena, we have some towers going up. The big guys are coming off a big work program and they’re looking to continue to fuel (orders), and it’s tough.”

Companies that build roads or move earth for energy projects are often hit hard because they have expensive machinery to maintain, Bentley said.

“The cash burn is up for a lot of these heavy equipment contractors,” he said.

“We’re going to see some bankruptcies for sure … in the coming months, in Edmonton, in Calgary, Grande Prairie, Lloydminster.”

Association members are waiting for the province to announce infrastructure spending plans, but there’s nothing on the horizon in Edmonton to match Calgary’s ring-road completion and cancer centre, Bentley said.

“Everything’s kind of finishing here … . We keep hearing about more schools, but not a lot of big, bulky museum-, arena-typeprojects at this point.”

A report by consultants PwC indicates that while Edmonton’s real estate market is softening, it’s still stronger than other Alberta markets.

Suburban companies might move downtown to take advantage of cheaper office spaceas highrise towers are completed, which, along with residential conversions, could attract millennials and others to the urban core.

A second report, from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., predicted that while construction of single-family homes in the Edmonton area will rise modestly next year, multi-unit housing starts will drop.

Bentley agreed higher oil prices are needed to boost the construction industry, but he said he’s already talking to developers who feel it’s a good time to build because prices are cheap.

Contractors should take advantage of the slowdown to improve their efficiency, he said.

“It seems like every 10 years there’s a little bit of a house cleaning or a culling of the herd. I think we’re in it. I think Edmonton comes out of it 12 months, 16 months from now stronger as a construction community.”

gkent@postmedia.com

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