Slow 2011

Landscape contracting peaking, slow 2011 ahead. It'll be a dry future in more ways than one in the landscape contracting business in the San Diego Market for the rest of this year and in 2011, according to ValleyCrest Landscape Development.

The Calabasas-based company, which says it is the largest landscape contractor nationally with 10,000 employees and nearly $940 million in annual sales, has nearly $16.7 million in active contracts in San Diego County and $32 million San Diego revenues this year, 10 percent of the total for California. But most of the projects here are government or institutional jobs and only a handful are in the once booming residential and commercial market.

Apart from the business outlook, Germann said the nature of landscaping has changed for good. "There's little or no turf grass being designed in," he said. "In fact, if there is, a lot of times it's artificial turf; we've been certified for that for a number of years." Instead, landscape architects and developers are specifying low-water-using plants that require little maintenance.

"We're seeing the change in the whole industry," he said. "It doesn't just pertain to the public sector. I've seen, with very few model (home) complexes out there, they're all going with drought-tolerant plant palettes. I think the tropic, lush look trend has definitely turned to more of a California native, indigenous look and plant palette. It makes more sense. It's more sustainable and I think in the long run that's what people are going to stick with."

Comparing 2010 to 2009, Germann said ValleyCrest is finishing up leftover projects from the "good years. 2010 has been tough," he said. "We were fortunate to have a healthy backlog going into it and putting back (replacing) the work we're finishing is proving to be a challenge.

"You're going to be seeing pretty much a flat amount of work opportunities in the next couple of years. I don't think it's going to be any worse, but I don't anticipate it getting much better, especially in the private sector in the San Diego Market."

Source: Union Tribune