Kelowna breaks the $1 billion mark in building permits issued this year
For the first time ever, the City of Kelowna has issued more than $1 billion worth of building permits in a single year.
And that’s just to Oct. 27, by which time $1.057 billion worth of permits had been issued.
That was led by permits for The Block and Bernard highrise towers taken out by the Mission Group. Those are the two towers that will complete the company’s three-tower Bernard Block project.
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Together, those permits totalled more than $100 million, Mo Bayat, the City of Kelowna’s development services director told iNFOnews.ca.
“That was the mega project,” he said. “After that, we have so many other projects, so many multifamily dwellings with construction values of $1.5 million to $40 million.”
There were also more than 400 permits issued for single family homes.
That permit value is just for construction costs. It doesn’t include the cost for things like roads and services and it doesn’t include development cost charges that are paid to the city. Those come to more than $40,000 for each housing unit.
The high value was aided by the fact that the cost of construction materials skyrocketed this year, especially for lumber earlier in the year.
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Construction slowed down dramatically because of COVID, with permits totalling only $492.4 million for all of 2020. That was down from $887.5 million in 2019 and the record year in 2019 of $912.8 million
But, while COVID hurt the city in 2020, it’s one of the factors helping fuel the growth this year and beyond.
“Kelowna was discovered again during COVID,” Bayat said. “People from California and other places, they come here because they don’t want to be in a crowded city. If they can work from anywhere, why not come to a place like Kelowna that offers great lifestyle and great services and proactive and visionary council and administration?"
“Supply cannot keep up with demand and demand just keeps going up so I don’t see any downsize in demand in 2022. It’s hard to predict beyond 2022 but 2022 is going to be another very busy year for us.”
There are already three highrises that have been approved for the Water Street by the Park project on Leon Avenue. That includes a 42-storey tower that will, if built, become the tallest building in Kelowna.
At one point, there were applications submitted to the city for 200 storeys of highrises in about a dozen towers along Bertram Street but one 46-storey proposal has been rejected by city council and some others have yet to be rezoned.
READ MORE: More than 200 storeys of housing planned for this short downtown Kelowna street
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