Local Builders Brace For Higher Costs
I recently took on the Patrick Administration’s budding drive to turn Massachusetts into a green paradise.
A mountain of new regulations aimed at forcing businesses to do everything from reengineer parking lots to buy expensive solar power could add billions in costs to already beleaguered businesses, I argued in my weekly B&T column.
So with the real estate market reeling, what better time to heap thousands in additional costs on the construction of new homes?
The Boston Herald reports the state’s Board of Building Regulations and Standards has given the green light - so to speak - to tough new energy codes that could increase the cost of constructing new homes and office buildings by as much as $10,000 per structure.
It’s welcome news I am sure to already hard-pressed local home builders, struggling with the worst downturn since the Great Depression.
“Does anyone look out the window? There’s a recession going on, and we’re adding to the cost of doing business here,” David Begelfer, president of NAIOP Massachusetts, told the Herald.
Well, apparently not.