Arne Petryshen
Construction values were down in the third quarter of 2015, as compared to the same period in 2014.
This year’s third quarter saw a total new construction value of $4.5 million compared to $5.6 million for the third quarter of last year.
CAO Wayne Staudt said that on a quarter-to-quarter basis Cranbrook is not too far from 2014.
“We’re down a little, but it’s still reasonable,” Staudt said at Monday’s city council meeting.
The difference revolved around a drop in building permits for residential, institutional and signs.
The report noted that the third quarter of 2015 included seven new housing starts and five mobile homes on foundation as compared to 11 new housing starts and five mobile homes for the third quarter of 2014.
In the third quarter of both years a total of 66 building permits were issued.
Residential building permits for the third quarter of 2015 was $3 million as compared to $4.2 million in 2014.
Commercial permits were up in the third quarter of 2015 to $403,000 compared to $344,999 in the quarter of 2014.
Industrial also rose in the third quarter of 2015 to $1.1 million from $432,000 for the same period of 2014.
Institutional permits saw a drop in 2015, with the quarterly total of $53,050 from $489,000 for the third quarter of 2014.
Permits for signs also dropped to $87,076 in the third quarter of 2015 compared to $160,517 in 2014.
Staudt said the year-to-date is a different story.
“The first three quarters of 2014 was $33.5 million versus $10.5 million in 2015,” he said. “But if you look at the big difference in there, the difference is in the institutional and that’s $15.5 million. I believe that would be associated with the hospital addition that was just down in 2014. Those large institutional construction activities can certainly make a quarter-to-quarter or year-to-year difference.”
The report noted that as of September 30, 2015, a total of 175 permits have been issued, compared to 176 at for the same period in 2014.
The construction value for the hospital ICU was $14,974,000.
Staudt noted that on the residential permits it is relatively close, with $7.8 million as compared to $10.6 million last year.
Commercial was down quite a bit this year, at $1.3 million compared to $6.2 million in 2014.
Industrial was up in 2015, at $1.1 million as compared to $757,000 in 2014.
Signs dropped to $234,424 from $393,922.