North Bay stands to enjoy some banner years in construction if building permit values are any indication of things to come.
Mayor Vic Fedeli believes the city is “poised to take off” with a good cross-section of construction projects in the works in the residential, multi-residential, commercial and institutional sectors.
“We’ve already had more housing starts in the first six months than all last year.”
In recent years, the city has averaged about $30 million in building permits annually, but by early July, North Bay had already reached the $33-million mark.
Fedeli says the value of permits has not hit the $60-million range since the late 1980s, and he is projecting the city will surpass that mark and possibly even close in on the $70-million level, which was once attained during the city’s early ‘80s construction boom.
Fedeli attributes the increase to city hall’s more business-friendly climate with a red-tape cutting ‘fast-track’ program and a pro-business council that has encouraged more outside investor confidence in the city.
“There’s no question that North Bay is seen as open for business for the first time in a long time.
“We’re hands-on and we take an active interest in each building permit.”
Both Nipissing University and Canadore College have plans to build student residences.
Nipissing’s 226-bed residence is an $11.1-million design-build joint venture between Critchley Delean Trussler Evans Bertand Architects and Gap Construction from North Bay.
“I’ve had several meetings with (Nipissing) president (Dennis Mock), pushing them to take out a building permit and get started on their residence, because we know the price of steel escalated and pushed on the edge of making it a no-go.”
Construction on the three- or four-storey building was expected to begin in July with completion scheduled for September, 2005.
Canadore’s $7-million, 146-bed residence, designed by Larocque Elder architects and also built by Gap Construction, is scheduled for completion in late August.
Dalron Construction is building a $20-million, 185-unit retirement residence near the waterfront.
On the commercial side, Home Depot and Tru-North Chevrolet Olds car dealership are building near the Highway 11-17 intersection and there are several new retail businesses on Lakeshore Drive.
The city is also intent on selling off as much surplus residential property as possible to replenish their depleted general reserves, ranked among the lowest in Ontario.
The city had 365 fully serviced properties to sell, and since putting land on the block this spring, Fedeli says sales are going extremely well.
“The public has reacted extremely positively and are scooping up the lots since we put them up” at a rate of about two per month.
In one instance, a skating rink property, left abandoned for 20 years with a deteriorating building on site, was sold by the city for $162,000. The new owner erected four semi-detached university residences and the city now makes $15,000 in property taxes.
