Fort Smith metro building activity through April 36% ahead of 2016

Fort Smith, Van Buren, and Greenwood added $76.955 million in permits against 2016’s $56.506 million valuation through April, a gain of 36.2%.

Fort Smith led the way – not to the extent of previous months, including a 58% gain in March — but Arkansas’ second largest city posted $13.264 million in permit values for the month, compared with $12.293 million in April 2016.

Most of the month’s activity landed on the commercial side with $8.779 million logged on 38 permits. The residential portion was a distant second, adding $3.016 million in valuations on 124 permits.

The largest individual line items fell on the commercial side with four seven-figure permits in particular topping $6.27 million. A $1.376 million roof repair at Southside High School on 4100 Gary St. was part of that, while a second roof repair in the amount of $1.001 million was undertaken at the site of Americold Logistics, 1634 Midland Blvd. There was one new construction permit in the amount of $1.174 million at 4731 S. Zero St. issued to Steve Beam Construction for the new Tool Central facility and a $2.719 million permit issued for an addition to Mars Petcare.

For the first four months of the year, Fort Smith posted $64.512 million in permit values against $57.148 million for the same period last year, a 12.89% increase.

VAN BUREN, GREENWOOD
Van Buren stayed above 2016’s year-to-date performance, but no thanks to its April numbers. The city logged $3.505 million on 42 projects, a drop of 33.12% from the previous April’s $5.241 million. Over half ($2.1 million) is for the new Aldi Food Store at 2309 Fayetteville Road. With the performance, the city has fallen to a net gain of just 3.13% for the first four months of 2017 with $6.934 million in new valuations against $6.724 million in 2016.

Greenwood also tapered off considerably in April with a 63.25% drop to just $489,465 in valuations on two permits (both residential) versus $1.332 million in April 2016. Still, the drop was not enough to knock it under the 10%-gain mark year-to-date. In the first four months of 2017, the city has logged $5.509 million in permits against a total of $4.929 million during the same period last year, an increase of 11.77%.

REGIONAL BUILDING ACTIVITY RECAP
Combined total for the three cities
2016: $213.734 million (With 33.33% of the year complete, the 2017 YTD is at 36% of the 2016 total)
2015: $218.899 million
2014: $198.983 million
2013: $202.389 million
2012: $154.64 million
2011: $201.079 million
2010: $149 million
2009: $164 million

Fort Smith
2016: $187.675 million (With 33.33% of the year complete, the 2017 YTD is at 34.37% of the 2016 total)
2015: $191.631 million
2014: $174.252 million
2013: $185.057 million
2012: $136.248 million

Van Buren
2016: $15.328 million (With 33.33% of the year complete, the 2017 YTD is at 45.24% of the 2016 total)
2015: $16.009 million
2014: $7.918 million
2013: $8.283 million
2012: $8.609 million

Greenwood
2016: $10.731 million (With 33.33% of the year complete, the 2017 YTD is at 51.34% of the 2016 total)
2015: $11.259 million
2014: $16.813 million
2013: $9.049 million
2012: $9.983 million