They didn't quite set another record, but the City of Estevan still enjoyed another fantastic year when it came to construction in 2011. And there is reason to believe 2012 might be even better.
The final building permit report figures for 2011 were released at the Jan. 9 regular meeting of city council. For the fourth consecutive year, the City topped the $40 million mark after issuing 139 permits with a combined value of $40.63 million.
City manager Jim Puffalt says although they didn't best their record of $50.81 million, set in 2010, it was another solid year.
"It was actually a really great year. It was the third highest on record," said Puffalt. "We sold some land and if those permits would have come through last year we certainly would have beaten the record."
Not surprisingly, with the continuing housing shortage in Estevan, the bulk of the $40 million total came through permits for multi-family housing. A total of 14 permits, which had a combined value of $10.46 million, were issued last year. The City also enjoyed another strong year on the commercial construction front with $10.33 million in 2011. There were also another $7.2 million in industrial permits issued and $6.86 million in single family home permits.
"We are very pleased with (2011). There has been a huge amount of construction over the last five years."
As pleased as he was with 2011, Puffalt says there is a chance 2012 could be another record year for Estevan.
As he previously mentioned, the City sold two parcels of land to private developers who have plans to build hotels on those plots. The one parcel is located just off Kensington Avenue next to the new Audio/Video Unlimited building and Walmart. The other is at the corner of King Street and Kensington.
Puffalt said the City is also finalizing a land sales agreement with a company for land behind the Walmart that will be used for further commercial development. There is also a potential development on the west edge of Estevan next to St. Joseph's Hospital and Puffalt said the City is currently in the process of developing a sanitary sewer plan for the area so a servicing agreement can be completed.
"Every day there are people contacting land development or contacting me or the mayor. We meet with developers on a weekly basis. Lots of our time is spent with developers," said Puffalt who noted the red-hot economy in the southeast is the reason for the high level of interest in the city.
"The economy is the issue that gets them to the door and they see what is happening and the activity and the jobs that are available. And once they get here, we try to find a way to accommodate them; we still remember 10 years ago when nothing was happening. We are trying to work with developers and get them into the ground."
The lack of housing also figures to be an ongoing problem in 2012 although Puffalt said the City is continuing to work on that front as well.
He said construction on 26 new lots on land near St. Joseph's hospital is expected to begin in the spring. The City is also continuing to work with Newport Developments on The Meadows of Estevan neighbourhood which, if it goes ahead, would be located on land north of Wellock Road near the hospital. Puffalt said he remains confident The Meadows will go ahead once the final engineering work is completed by the developers.
The City is also taking a proactive approach to find more land for developers to build multi-family developments on. Puffalt said they are looking for older buildings that are next to each other and require a significant amount of maintenance. They would like to purchase the properties, clear the land and sell it to companies looking to build duplexes, condos or apartments.
"As another method of trying to take advantage of the infrastructure in the ground, we asked council what they thought about doing that," Puffalt said. "The idea is we would buy some of the older buildings that are perhaps in need of major repairs and knock them down. It would take advantage of our people and equipment in the wintertime. When there is not a ton of snow, there are other things we could do and that would be one thing. With the equipment we have, we could knock the buildings down, haul them out and resell them to developers."
Puffalt said thus far they haven't had much luck locating applicable properties but are continuing to search.
"It's hard to find two to three houses together that aren't priced outrageously. That is the biggest problem, trying to get two to three together. We are looking at houses, commercial, anything that we can put together for a developer that wants to do multi-family because we are contacted almost on a daily basis by people that want to do something."
Despite the lack of available land, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says housing starts in Estevan in 2011 were basically on par with figures from 2010.
The CMHC says there were 45 single family starts in 2011 which is down by just 6.3 per cent from the previous year. Multi-family home starts rose slightly, climbing from 131 in 2010 to 133 in 2011, an increase of 1.5 per cent.
Overall, housing starts were up by 23.9 per cent throughout Saskatchewan.
