Permits for construction projects in Brant County dropped sharply in the first half of the year in comparison to 2022 but there are signs business is picking up.
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At the year’s halfway mark, the county has issued almost 400 permits with a construction value of about $69.7 million.
That’s a drastic drop from a record-breaking 2022 when 625 permits were issued in the first six months of the year, for projects worth about $117.5 million. That year ended with more than $270 million in projects that had been approved.
“We’ve been hitting records year after year and it can’t keep happening forever,” said county chief building inspector Richard Weidhaas.
“When you go up, up, up, there’s nowhere to go but down eventually.”
But Weidhaas doesn’t think this year’s downward trend will continue.
“We have a lot of applications on the horizon. It would be nice if they were staggered throughout the year but we’ve had an average first quarter, a lower second and an even third quarter. I expect but I think by the end of the year we’ll see it average out.”
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Weidhaas said a lot of housing developers are pushing off their permits to the fall, likely due to a recent interest rate hike and a dip in sales of new homes.
While residential permits were down by $30 million in the first half of the year, and owners adding a second home in bases, additions or detached buildings are down about half, the county still added 102 new residential units in the first half of the year.
The goal for new homes in Brant is 300 a year but Weidhaas expects a steady flow of fall work in new subdivisions.
Commercial work also dipped so far in 2023 but farm, industrial and institutional projects have all remained steady.
“The building industry is peaks and valleys,” said Weidhaas. “It always has been.”
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Some of the larger permits issued in the first half of the year for the county include:
- A new industrial building for Molten Metallurgy Inc. at 80 Woodslee Ave. with a construction value of about $2.8 million.
- An addition valued at about $2.2 million for the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Hamilton church at 68 Bethel Rd., which is between Paris and Burford.
- A $1.5 million portable classroom erected by the Catholic school board at Sacred Heart School in Paris.
- A million-dollar addition to a mechanic shop at Stubbe’s Precast on Muir Road.
- A shell building being erected by Vicano Developments Limited at 197 Pinehurst Rd. has a value of about $980,000.
- Three permits totaling about $900,000 for three new self-storage buildings at for Fort Henry Storage.
- A new Tigercat building at 141 Consolidated Dr. in Paris was issued a permit for about $400,000 in foundation work.
- A new $850,000 industrial building on Papple Road was given a permit in June.
- Two of the county firehalls – in Mount Pleasant and Burford – were given permits to install $210,000 mezzanines in the halls to provide storage and training areas.
- Work on the interior of a new Taco Bell on Pinehurst Road was permitted in March.
There were also a number of higher value permits issued for farm projects like a beef barn, seed and grain storage building, manure storage facility, shop addition, hay storage building and other such farm structures around the county.
@EXPSGamble
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