Fort Smith metro building permit numbers down 60% in October, up 8% for the year

Fort Smith metro area construction activity – based on building permit values – dropped in October compared to last year, but year to date the activity is 8% above where it was last year. The gain comes in large part from an almost 30% gain in Fort Smith numbers.

Fort Smith, Van Buren and Greenwood had combined building permit values of $24.248 million in October, down 60% from the $60.865 million value of building permits issued in the region in October 2022 but up 43.7% from the $16.938 values of permits issued in the three cities in September.

For the first 10 months of the year, the three largest cities in the area have reported $449.203 million in building permits, up 8.6% compared to the $413.469 million reported through October 2022.

Fort Smith issued 276 permits in October with a combined value of $19.63 million, up 40.5% from the $13.974 million value of 320 permits issued last month but down 63.1% from the $53.739 million value of 407 permits issued in October 2022. Year-to-date, Fort Smith has reported $406.491 million in building projects, up 29.5% from the $313.819 million reported through the first 10 months of 2022.

There were 21 permits issued for new residential construction in the month with a value of $4.991 million, up 158% from the $1.934 million value of nine permits issued in September and down 5.6% from the $5.286 million value of 28 new residential construction permits issued in October 2022.

There were five permits issued for new commercial construction in October with a combined value of $4.407 million, up 98% from the $2.223 million value of three new commercial construction projects issued in September but down 81.2% from the $23.482 value of six new commercial construction projects permitted last October.

The new commercial construction included a $1 million 7 Brew Coffee Shop at 5400 Rogers Ave., and a $2.8 million car wash at 5404 Rogers Ave., both owned by Club Carwash Rogers LLC of Columbia Missouri. Other new construction permits were issued for a $221,503 new equipment shed for Forsgren Inc. of Fort Smith; a $275,000 Clean Cookin addition at 524 Raleigh St. for AC/DC Electrical Contracting Co. of Fort Smith; and a $110,000 open-air warehouse at 610 Towson Ave., Unit B, for Griffin Construction Co. of Fort Smith.

VAN BUREN, GREENWOOD NUMBERS
Van Buren, the region’s second largest city, had 137 projects permitted in October with a combined value of $3.101 million, up 49.7% from the $2.072 million value of 122 projects in September but down $43.5% from the $5.491 million value of 115 projects permitted in October 2022.

On the residential side, the city had 14 projects permitted with a value of $2.446 million, up 90% from the $1.287 value of residential projects permitted last month and up 247% from the $705,000 value of residential projects permitted in October 2022.

On the commercial side, Van Buren had four projects permitted with a combined value of $535,000, down 31.8% from the $785,000 value of commercial projects permitted in September and down 88% from the $4.524 million in commercial construction projects in October 2022. In the first 10 months of the year, Van Buren has recorded $31.678 million in permitted activity, down 63.3% from the $86.39 million reported through October 2022, a year in which Van Buren experienced significant building growth.

Greenwood issued eight permits in October with a combined value of $1.617 million, up 81.4% from the $891,592 combined value of 16 permits issued in September and down 1.1% from the $1.635 million value of 10 permits issued in October 2022. From January through October, Greenwood has had $15.14 million in building projects permitted, up 14.2% from the $13.263 million in the first 10 months of last year.

The region ended 2022 with $480.376 million in permitted building activity, a 39.9% increase over the $343.289 million in 2021. The Fort Smith metro has seen continuous growth over the  past several years, but no recent year has performed as well in building activity as 2022 with all three of the larger cities in the region seeing an increase in building numbers from 2021.

REGIONAL BUILDING ACTIVITY RECAP
Combined total for the three cities
2022: $480.376 million
2021: $343.289 million
2020: $265.975 million
2019: $241.741 million
2018: $231.78 million
2017: $210.844 million
2016: $211.345 million
2015: $218.899 million
2014: $198.983 million
2013: $202.389 million
2012: $154.64 million