Author: Kirsten Mason

This article appeared in the Kamloops This Week on January 3rd, 2013 and was written by Andrea Klassen.

For the first time since 2008, Kamloops has handed out more than $200 million in building permits in a single year.

The city’s latest statistics show $202-million in permits were given out in 2012, compared to $162.5 million in 2011.

City staff had originally predicted they would hand out between $130 and $150 million in permits this year, but a number of major projects drove the estimate up.

Among those was the Telus data centre. Its $30-million permit accounted for nearly all the $31-million in commercial-building permits issued in December 2012.

“That’s the one that put us over,” said city director of development and engineering services Marvin Kwiatkowski, who expects the big-ticket projects to continue into 2013.

“There’s still some others coming through the door, so I think we’re going to have a good start this year as well.”

Among the projects on the horizon are an $8-million permit for interior work on the new law building (the revamped Old Main Building) at Thompson Rivers University, a new $2.2-million John Deere dealership and a $60-million permit for the new clinical-care and parkade building at Royal Inland Hospital.

“It’s positive, because it’s putting people to work,” Kwiatkowski said. “When you’re having large projects of that nature, you’re having a lot of activity in the city. So, that’s a positive for our economy.”

After two years of relatively flat residential-construction numbers — 350 units of new housing were built in 2012, compared to 400 in 2011 — Kwiatkowski said that sector will probably pick up this year.

“We’ve got three larger multi-family projects, totalling just over 200 units. It could be close to $20 million with these three projects alone,” he said. That is more multi-family units than were built in the city in all of 2012.

For 2013, Kwiatkowski is predicting the city will hand out about $160-million in permits. Taking into account the projects he’s already aware of, Kwiatkowski is confident that target will be met.

“If you throw in all these projects here, including the hospital, we’re close to $100 million. And, if I put in residential like we’ve had the last couple of years, that’s another $40 million,” he said.

From there, smaller projects should fill the $20 million gap.

Kwiatkowski is also hoping to see more single-family home permits handed out in 2013 — a trend that often follows a period of heavy commercial construction.

Only 131 permits for single family homes were given out in 2012, two fewer than in 2011.

This article appeared in the Kamloops This Week on December 4th, 2012 and was written by Andrea Klassen.

The clock is ticking down, but director of development services Marvin Kwiatkowski is confident the city’s building-permit numbers for 2012 are going to break the $200-million barrier before the end of December.

With the release of November’s statistics, the city is standing at $167 million in permitted construction, up from last year’s overall total of $157.6 million.

One major project the city has been expecting all year — the $30-million Telus data centre — will apparently finally go through before the calendar rolls over.

“I’d put money on it,” Kwiatkowski said when asked if the city would end the year above the $200-million mark.

It would be only the second time Kamloops has doled out permits at that level.

In 2008, the record year to date, the city ended the year with $207-million in permits.

Overall, the city gave out permits worth more than $10 million for the month of November, compared to more than $11 million in November 2011.

Of that, residential projects totalled $6.6 million, down from $8.4 million in November 2011, while commercial endeavours were worth $3.2 million

November saw the city issue 15 single-family home permits, a higher than average number for 2012.

Kwiatkowski said the sudden rise comes as a new B.C. Building Code is about to go into effect on Dec. 20.

“Whenever you have a change of code, people want to get in the door,” he said.

Those who snap up permits before the 20th have two years to build under the old code, without having to worry about changes found in the new document.

While the city is set to exceed both its initial and revised construction-value estimates for the year, it’s still slightly below projections on residential units.

So far, 341 units have been permitted this year, compared to 383 at this time in 2011.

Development and engineering services had estimated there would be 350 units.