Building activity doubles.

• Author: Wareing, Andrew
• Position: North Bay

What started as a slow building year in North Bay picked up in a "big way" in August.

That was the assessment of North Bay's manager of economic development Rick Evans. Residential development growth has in the past three years closely followed increases in commercial development in the city such as expansions at the Northgate Mall, says Ian Kilgour, senior planner, current operations for the City of North Bay.

"It is all related to investor confidence in the community," says Evans. "We started with a bit of a slow year, but August came through in a big way for us."

That "big way" is reflected in $12.5 million in building permits issued by the city in August, compared to $5 million last August. Among those include $5 million in residential additions, $6.2 million in new construction and $900,000 in renovations. Single residential construction dropped slightly in August, but there were 36 single-family units constructed by year-to-date in September.

Evans reports a small amount of industrial construction- about $500,000.

"(The industrial construction) is nice to see after the reduction of the industrial taxes," Evans says. "We're starting to see some movement on the industrial side which is nice. Normally, a lot of the industrial stuff happens in additions so its nice to see some new stuff."

"There is a healthy mix of new (construction) and additions," Evans says.

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