The megaproject boom has an address, and it isn’t the West Coast. Through August, nonresidential starts in the East North Central census division (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin) were up 77.5% from the same stretch of 2025. The Middle Atlantic was right behind at 75.9%.
Those figures come from a regional breakdown ConstructConnect chief economist Michael Guckes published Sept. 29. Six of the nine census divisions posted year-to-date gains in total nonresidential starts, which combines nonresidential building and civil work. Three went backward: the Pacific, Mountain and New England divisions.
Megaproject construction starts concentrate in the Midwest
The East North Central surge is almost entirely a megaproject story. Illinois, Indiana and Michigan have each logged more than $20 billion in megaproject starts this year, mostly data centers and manufacturing plants, according to ConstructConnect’s analysis. ConstructConnect also pointed to civil and commercial growth in Ohio and neighboring Kentucky.
That’s a big number, and a fragile one. A handful of projects can double a state’s annual starts, and a single cancellation can take them away.
New York and Louisiana ride single projects
The Middle Atlantic gain leans hard on New York. The state’s nonresidential building starts reached $44.2 billion through August, second only to Texas at $60.0 billion. ConstructConnect records Micron Technology’s $25 billion chip fab (which Exchange lists as the Micron Clay Megafab) as breaking ground in July. Nonresidential building starts in the division were up 105.1% year to date.
Louisiana shows the same pattern on the civil side. Its civil starts hit $16.7 billion, up 587%, thanks to projects including the $13 billion Commonwealth LNG export terminal. Take that one terminal out and Louisiana’s civil year looks very different.
The West is the counterweight. California, Oregon and Washington have each seen civil construction starts fall 20% or more this year. For contractors there, the national headline numbers don’t describe their market.
Data center construction trends drive the map
ConstructConnect’s separate data center report, also released Sept. 29, explains much of the geography. Data center starts reached $98.5 billion across 153 projects through August, averaging $1.18 billion and about 707,000 square feet each. That’s 24% of all nonresidential building starts. A five-state Midwest cluster running from Wisconsin to Ohio has more than $10 billion of data center starts per state, and Texas tops $22 billion on its own.
Costs vary more than most owners budget for. After removing outliers, ConstructConnect puts the median data center at $541 per square foot and the average at $867, with individual projects ranging from under $300 to over $2,200. When the average runs that far above the median, a few very expensive buildings are pulling the number up.
The pipeline isn’t slowing yet. ConstructConnect counts another $26.1 billion across 65 data center projects planned to start between September and December, with $11 billion of it in Texas. Our look at the autumn forecast showed the same concentration at the national level.
For regional contractors, the takeaway is blunt. Growth this year isn’t spread evenly. It’s sitting in roughly five states, and it’s attached to a few dozen owners.