Building permit values are up considerably in 2019 compared to the previous year. Driving the increase over the past two months are two big permits for the downtown area. A new 140 unit rental apartment building is under construction on the between 4th and 5th on St Paul Street, the site of the old Movie Mart rental store. The $21 million permit was issued in July, the building will be a 6 storey made up of ground floor commercial space and 5 storeys of rental units. 12 subsidized units have been designated for seniors; which is great news for the aging population that is living on limited funds.
Royal Inland Hospital also pulled a $33.6 million foundation permit for the new patient care tower in the past quarter which has driven the total values up. Construction has already begun on the foundation as seen by driving down Columbia Street.
Other sizeable projects beginning work around Kamloops is the roof repairs for Sagebrush Theatre (1 million), construction of Marshalls (1.5 million) as well as site servicing for the new apartment building on Robson Drive, located behind Sahali Ridge, the new multi-family units in Juniper on Qu’Appelle Boulevard and multi-family development on Ord Road.
In July alone the city issued 886 building permits valuing $178.6 million, compared to this same period last year when permits valued $158.2 million. While we are just over 50% through the 2019 calendar year, it’s easy to see why we will surpass the previous year’s totals – in 2019 the total permits issued were $285 million.
With the latest zoning amendments for legal suites, carriage & garden suites, I anticipate we will see a steady increase of permits issued as more owners jump on board ahead of 2020.
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