The Dodge Momentum Index rose 1.2% in December compared to the previous month, according to McGraw Hill Construction, a division of McGraw Hill Financial. The Momentum Index is a monthly measure of the first (or initial) report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which have been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year. December's increase brought the Momentum Index to 118.3 (2000=100), the highest reading since February 2009. Over the course of 2013, the Momentum Index showed steady improvement, with December up 32% compared to the same month a year ago. Despite the strong percentage growth during 2013, the Momentum Index remains significantly below its December 2007 pre-recession peak of 191.3.

The latest month's increase for the Momentum Index was driven by both its commercial and institutional components. On the commercial side, the 1.5% gain was largely the result of greater planning activity for office and hotel development. Among the larger office projects to enter the planning pipeline in December were the$350 million Moffat Place Office Campus in Sunnyvale CA, the $300 million Boston Garden Office Tower inBoston MA, and the $95 million expansion of a Microsoft data center in Quincy WA. The 0.8% gain for the institutional component was due primarily to a pickup in plans for education-related buildings, the largest of which were a $120 million renovation/addition to the University of Michigan's School of Dentistry in Ann Arbor MI, a $100 million Nuclear Power Training Facility in Charleston SC, and a $90 million renovation to the University of Dearborn's Engineering Laboratory in Dearborn MI.