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Federal obligations in commercial and institutional building construction (NAICS 236220)

Federal contract awards coded NAICS 236220, commercial and institutional building construction, carry $183,417,727,725.36 in obligations in the USAspending.gov records indexed here. The total spans 43,657 awards. These are obligations, not outlays. The code is vertical construction of buildings—courthouses, hospitals, offices, barracks—not highways, not “other heavy” civil work, and not facilities-support operations after the building is occupied.

Key figures

  • Commercial and institutional building construction (NAICS 236220) shows $183,417,727,725.36 in obligations.
  • Those dollars sit on 43,657 contract awards, not a count of buildings.
  • 236220 is vertical building work, not highways (237310) or other heavy civil (237990).
  • Figures are USAspending contract obligations, not outlays or grants.

What commercial and institutional building construction covers

NAICS 236220 covers general contractors responsible for commercial and institutional buildings. On USAspending.gov the code tags contract awards classified as that construction: new federal buildings, major renovations coded as building construction, and similar vertical work. It is not a square-footage inventory, and it is not a list of every construction trade subcontract. The NAICS follows the award’s industry classification.

Highway, street, and bridge construction is 237310. Other heavy and civil engineering construction—dams, marine work, and similar—is 237990. Facilities support services (561210) is operations, not building the structure. A campus project can split dollars among those codes. The $183.4 billion figure is only awards tagged 236220.

Reading construction obligations

USAspending records obligations when agencies award or modify construction contracts. Change orders, options, and task orders on construction IDIQs all feed $183,417,727,725.36. This packet has no fiscal-year split and no outlay total. A courthouse can show a large obligation at award while progress payments continue for years.

Outlays are the payments. Citing $183.4 billion as money already spent on buildings overstates cash out the door if work is still underway. Citing it as the federal public-buildings budget confuses obligations with appropriations. Quote USAspending contract obligations coded to NAICS 236220.

43,657 awards on a construction code

Building construction generates many award records: task orders, small renovations, and modifications as well as a smaller set of very large new-construction vehicles. The 43,657 count is not 43,657 buildings. One hospital replacement can produce many rows. Compared with highway construction in this dataset, 236220 has both a large dollar total and a high award count. The industry page shows how those records break down.

Building construction on the federal side is vertical work: $183,417,727,725.36 in USAspending obligations on 43,657 awards tagged NAICS 236220. Courthouses, hospitals, barracks, and offices can share that total when tagged as commercial and institutional buildings. Highways cannot; they are 237310. Dams and marine jobs cannot; they are 237990. Facilities support cannot; it is 561210. The 43,657 records mix new-construction vehicles and renovation orders. They are not 43,657 buildings. Assistance construction grants often have no NAICS. Cite contract obligations, not an appropriation. Cite USAspending.gov. Keep outlays out; progress payments are a different field. The industry table shows the mix.

What 236220 excludes

Assistance awards—construction grants to states or localities—often lack NAICS and are outside this total. Design work coded as engineering services (541330) is not building construction. Environmental remediation (562910) is cleanup, not a new institutional building. Those neighboring tables answer different questions.

SpendingVault aggregates USAspending.gov contract data. The $183,417,727,725.36 total and the 43,657 award count can change after corrections. The live industry page is the table of record.

Using the building-construction industry page

Open the COMMERCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION industry page for the award list under the headline. Compare 236220 with 237310 and 237990 on All industries. Cite obligations, not outlays, and keep the 43,657 award count so readers see volume as well as dollars.

Citing building construction without roads or ops

Cite $183,417,727,725.36 in USAspending obligations on 43,657 awards tagged NAICS 236220, commercial and institutional building construction. Say vertical buildings, not highways and not facilities support. Those are other codes and other packets.

The 43,657 award count includes renovations and task orders, so it is not a building census. Progress payments (outlays) are not this field. Assistance construction grants often have no NAICS. If you need the award-level mix of new construction versus repair, open the industry page; this guide cannot invent that split.

Vertical construction on the federal side includes courthouses, hospitals, barracks, laboratories, and office buildings when the award is tagged 236220. The $183,417,727,725.36 total does not say which of those subtypes dominate. The 43,657 awards mix large new-construction vehicles with smaller renovation orders. A roof replacement can be a row. A hospital replacement can be a row. They are not the same project type, and this packet does not separate them.

GSA, defense, and veterans-care construction can all land here if tagged this way. This packet has no agency split. Do not call $183.4 billion a public-buildings appropriation. Do not call 43,657 a building census. Quote USAspending contract obligations coded to commercial and institutional building construction, then use the industry page for the mix.

Questions

How much is obligated on NAICS 236220 building construction?
USAspending.gov contract awards coded NAICS 236220 show $183,417,727,725.36 in obligations across 43,657 awards. That total is obligations, not outlays, for commercial and institutional building construction. USAspending.gov records the amount as contract obligations, not outlays, on awards tagged NAICS 236220.
Does this include highway and bridge work?
No. Highways, streets, and bridges are NAICS 237310. Other heavy civil work is 237990. This table’s $183,417,727,725.36 is building construction tagged 236220 only. The packet total is $183,417,727,725.36 across 43,657 awards; assistance awards often have no NAICS and stay outside the industry rollup.
Do 43,657 awards mean 43,657 federal buildings?
No. The 43,657 figure counts contract award records, including renovations, task orders, and modifications. It is not a building inventory. One project can generate many awards. Treat the 43,657 figure as an award-record count, including orders and modifications, not as a physical inventory of products or sites.
Are construction grants in this total?
Assistance awards may not carry NAICS and are generally outside the $183,417,727,725.36 industry total. This page is a USAspending contract-award rollup for 236220. This guide does not add a fiscal-year split. Quote the live industry page if you need the current award list under COMMERCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION.

NAICS from USAspending contract awards. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS.