91.9 The Bend Photo
Building permits in the City of Moncton are returning to levels not seen since before the pandemic began.
Moncton’s director of economic development Kevin Silliker believes the worst days may be over.
“Our business community has shown remarkable resiliency and we remain hopeful that there are no unexpected setbacks for a long time to come.”
During the second quarter of 2021 ending June 30th, the city issued 466 building permits worth more than $85 million.
The year-to-date value is just over $110 million which is comparable to 2019 at $113 million.
Residential made up more than half of the activity at nearly $48 million and largely driven by four new apartment buildings (containing 193 units) under construction whose permits totalled $29 million.
Commercial activity began to recover with second quarter totals of about $29 million compared to only $10 million in 2020.
Some of the permits for key projects include:
- a new Kent building supplies store on Moncton Street off Mapleton Road valued at $10 million
- a new sales and service centre on Price Street at $4.6 million
- renovation of the Higgins Block in the downtown at $1.2 million
- ground has been broken on the Panacadie Trail off Steadman Street at $1.1 million
Institutional activity included permits of about $1 million for renovations at the Moncton Hospital.
“We are certainly seeing some very interesting projects come forward, especially on the residential side,” said Mayor Dawn Arnold.
“I continue to be very optimistic with the growth mindset of our developer community,” she added.
