Fort Smith area permit values down in March

Building permit values in Fort Smith, Greenwood and Van Buren, combined to total $9.885 million in March, up from the $7.04 million February total, but down drastically from the $19.432 million issued in March 2011. The one-year decline represents a drop of approximately 50.9% in building permit valuations for the three cities.

FORT SMITH
The city of Fort Smith saw an increase in permits and values for the month of March from the 197 totaling $5.271 million in February. Last month, Fort Smith issued 202 permits for a total of $8.694 million. While the numbers do represent a one-month increase, they are also a significant decline of 52.7% from March 2011 when 226 permits were issued, valued at $18.384 million.

Commercial building additions and new home construction and repair were the most highly valued line items. Led by a $3 million addition to the Planters Co. at 4020 Planters Road, the building-commercial line item accounted for $4.245 million of the total on 27 permits.

Meanwhile, building-residential claimed another $3.712 million on 136 permits. New home construction accounted for 9 of those permits and a $1.917 million valuation, while repairs racked up 95 permits for a total of $1.267 million.

Fort Smith has dropped from $62.666 million in 2011 to $24.914 million in 2012. Without the Mitsubishi plant factored in, Fort Smith’s one-year decline is still off by $9.302 million from the first quarter of last year.

GREENWOOD
Permit values were up in Greenwood for the month of March from the $535,315 total in February to $628,240 on 9 permits. The current tally also represents a 25.3% uptick from March 2011 when the city issued only $469,300 in permit valuations.

The lion’s share of valuations came from new home construction ($602,040 on 4 permits). No public permits were issued as the remainder went primarily to home repairs, remodels, and additions.

Greenwood has posted a one-year decline from $1.835 million in the first quarter of 2011 to $1.438 million through the first three months of 2012.

VAN BUREN
Van Buren issued 34 permits for only $563,350, down from last month’s valuation of $1.232 million, which itself was down from $2.050 million in January. Compared with March 2011, the latest number is a decline from $578,731 last year (roughly 2.67%). For the month, residential construction permits dominated, accounting for $410,000 of the month’s totals on 10 permits.

Van Buren, the only bright spot in the first quarter of 2012, has risen from $1.873 million in 2011 to $3.845 million through last month.

2011 RECAP
Building permit values in the three cities during 2011 totaled $66.374 million for the first quarter, more than twice what the current numbers reflect ($30.198 million).

The 2011 gain was due primarily to a $28.45 million new construction permit in January of that year for Mitsubishi’s Chaffee Crossing plant. Even removing that permit from the equation, numbers are down from last year by approximately 20.4%, but the actual drop-off is around 54.5%.