By Norm Park
[email protected]
The construction pace in the Energy City slowed significantly in June, but the value of what was being built, was impressive.
When the building permit report for June was received by Estevan's city councillors on July 21, they saw that just 11 permits were issued in the previous month, but those 11 bore a total value of almost $13.4 million compared with 2013's June when 23 permits equaled just over $7 million in construction permit values.
In total, the number of construction projects and their values continues to easily outstrip last year's pace with 72 construction permits being granted this year for a total of $21.82 million compared with 57 permits and $14.53 million for the same six-month period last year.
In June, there were only three single-family residential units getting permits in Estevan compared with 10 last year. The three carried a total permit construction value of $680,000. The 10 permits last year had a value of $4.33 million.
However, on the overall scene, June was a bit of a anomaly because in the six-month period this year, there have been 39 new residential construction starts compared with just 21 last year. The value this year is listed at just over $5 million, compared with $7.15 million last year.
One multi-family housing unit was added to the list in June of this year with a construction evaluation of $665,000 compared with two last year at $1.15 million. To date, however, there have been construction starts on seven multi-family units. Last year there were five. The total permit value for multi-family dwellings this year stands at $3.24 million, compared with $1.85 million for the five permits in 2013.
When it comes to commercial construction, the pace is slower, but the projects have been bigger with four commercial undertakings so far this year coming in with a permit value of $12.2 million. This compared with nine permits granted in the first six-months of 2013 that were valued at just over $3.64 million.
Moving on to the simple residential garages, nobody in Estevan took out a permit in June of this year while six have been issued for the first six-months at a value of just under $185,000. The same number of permits issued in 2013 resulted in permit values of about $117,600.
On the miscellaneous construction side, there have been 14 permits issued so far in 2014 with a value of just over $745,600 compared with 12 issued last year in the same time period, with a value of just over $464,300.
