The City of Cranbrook is reporting $28.4-million in construction values in the first quarter of 2020, as compared to $3.5-million from the same time frame in 2019.
$20-million of those construction values are from the new 100-bed student housing being built at College of the Rockies.
“If you take that out of there, we’re still at $8.4-million, which last year at this time we were $3.5-million. It’s a definite increase,” Lee Pratt told MyEastKootenayNow.com, Mayor of Cranbrook. “It’s just a continuance of what we’ve seen over the last four years I think and we have a number of projects on the go here that I think we’re going to see record numbers again this year for sure.”
Annually, the City of Cranbrook has experienced continued construction growth as per the quarterly construction value statistics.
Besides the $20-million project at the College of the Rockies, $4.9-million or residential construction was underway, along with $2.5-million of commercial construction, both major gains from the same quarter in 2019.
More: Cranbrook Building Permit Summary Q1 2020 (City of Cranbrook)
Pratt said he’s optimistic the numbers will continue to grow and that they will once again exceed their 2019 construction values, which eclipsed $46.7-million.
“I’m pretty positive that they will continue to grow just because of the number of projects I know that are still in the planning stage and in the works,” said Pratt. “That shouldn’t be a detriment to the building permit numbers, I think we’re going to see very strong continued growth throughout the rest of the year.”
A total of 51 building permits were issued in Cranbrook from the start of January to the end of March, while 44 permits were issued in 2019’s first quarter.
Excluding the College of the Rockies adding 100 new student beds with their significant project, 17 residential dwellings are under construction in Cranbrook, with 13 single-family homes, and one multi-family four-plex.
Construction values remain a key indicator of healthy economic activity, and Pratt hopes that momentum can continue to carry on, even despite the pandemic.
“We’re just happy with the numbers and with what’s coming down in the future we think, so we’re really happy with how it’s going,” Pratt told MyEastKootenayNow.com. “With this COVID thing, we’re glad that the construction industry is still moving forward and people that had plans to do stuff are still in the works to do it.”
Given the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Cranbrook is participating in the regional Economic Resiliency Task Force (ERTF), to continue to attract investment to the region and secure supports for business in the area.
Read: Regional Task Force Continues Work on Economic Resiliency (April 30, 2020)