Pocket Parks, Big Impact: How Small Urban Green Spaces Strengthen Carolina Communities
In cities across the Carolinas, a quiet but powerful shift is taking place. As urban areas grow denser and development accelerates, municipalities and designers are rethinking what it means to build healthy, resilient, and connected communities. A quiet hero in that effort isn’t massive regional parks or sweeping greenbelt systems, it’s the pocket park. These…
2026 Look Ahead with Christi Powell, ABC Carolinas
GroundBreak Carolinas is pleased to share thoughts and insights from key leaders in the construction industry from North Carolina and South Carolina. Christi Powell, President & CEO of ABC Carolinas, shares her thoughts about 2026. What is your outlook on the construction industry for 2026? I view 2026 as a year of “cautious optimism” and…
Let’s Talk Construction: 2026 Industry Outlook with Brian Gallagher, PPC Partners
“Let’s Talk Business South Carolina” host Rick Jenkins invited repeat guest Brian Gallagher, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development at PPC Partners, to present the Commercial Construction Outlook for 2026. During their 19-minute conversation, Gallagher examines the market forces shaping development decisions, including capital investment trends, labor availability, material costs, and regional growth patterns….
Why Contractors Are Adopting AI—and What That Really Means
When leaders are asked why they’re investing in artificial intelligence, the answers are remarkably consistent, regardless of title or company size. They want work to run smoother. Faster decisions. Fewer surprises. Less friction. The 2025 BuiltWorlds Annual AI/ML Benchmarking Report makes this clear. Nearly every company surveyed cited sharper decision making, operational efficiency, and productivity…
CAGC’s Dave Simpson Shares Outlook on 2026
GroundBreak Carolinas is pleased to share thoughts and insights from key leaders in the construction industry from North Carolina and South Carolina. Dave Simpson, President & CEO of Carolinas AGC (CAGC), shares his thoughts as we enter 2026. What is your outlook on the construction industry for 2026? Positive and solid – if the Fed…
New Year’s Resolutions for Construction Firms
Because “Same as Last Year” Is Not a Strategy Every January, construction firms swear this will be the year things run smoother. Schedules will magically align. Change orders will behave themselves. Everyone will read the pre-task plan. And coffee will be strong enough to power a tower crane. Spoiler alert: hope is not a project…
The AI Boom and Commercial Real Estate
Commercial real estate has quietly rewired itself around the AI boom, and that shift is changing the risk profile of the entire asset class. Data centers are on track to surpass office construction as capital floods toward digital infrastructure that promises higher returns and sustained demand. Last year alone, data centers outperformed nearly every other…
Remembering Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry didn’t set out to build monuments. He set out to solve a riddle: why do so many buildings feel like they were designed to avoid blame instead of inspire awe? Why did architecture surrender its soul to the safe middle? Gehry wasn’t interested in the middle. He was interested in the edge, the…
NAOIP: Office Space Demand Forecast, Fourth Quarter 2025
Office Market at Pivotal ‘Normalization’ Point as Macroeconomic Factors Weigh on Economy Nationwide demand for office space experienced a large shift in momentum in the third quarter, with demand growing by 19.8 million square feet compared with negative net absorption of 14.9 million square feet in the second quarter. Although the most recent quarter was…
CarolinaPower Leaders Reflect on 25 Years in Business
It was the late 1990s when Georgia-based MetroPower decided to launch an out-of-state branch in Greenville, SC – doing business as (dba) CarolinaPower. The challenge at hand for the start-up: breaking into an established construction market with zero name recognition and minimal resources. Fast-forward 25 years and CarolinaPower has four offices across South Carolina –…
