Van Buren building permit numbers down in 2025, multifamily numbers up
Tate & Lyle began in 2025 to build a new wastewater treatment facility at its Van Buren, Ark., plant.
Van Buren posted a more than 13% decline in building permit values in 2025 compared with 2024, but the city had a big increase in duplex and apartment construction starts in the year.
In 2025, the Crawford County city had $19.785 million in permitted building activity, down 13.3% from $22.808 million in 2024, and down 40.6% from $33.332 million reported in 2023 — a record year for the city.
David Martin, building official for Van Buren, said the city’s largest project of the year was the Tate & Lyle Solutions USA project at 610 S. 28th St.
Tate & Lyle Public Limited Company is a British-based global supplier of food and beverage products. The company broke ground on a new wastewater treatment plant at its texturant production facility in Van Buren in March, when it also joined the Alliance for Water Stewardship.
The $5.2 million wastewater system is expected to be operational this year.
“At Tate & Lyle we rely on water for our operations and supply chain,” the company has said. “We’re mindful that water is a shared resource and that we must use it in a way that’s sustainable. That’s why we set a 2030 target to reduce our water use intensity by 15%. Reducing water use intensity within our operations is challenging given that, as a producer of ingredients for the food industry, we rightly work to strict constraints on how we can recycle and reuse water.”
The company’s goal is to lower the Van Buren facility’s water use by one-third. By introducing a new wastewater treatment plant, the company will be able to clean the water used when making corn-based starches back to “reuse” quality, in line with industry standards. Most of the water is used in the heating and cooling of the starch while it’s being made. Temperature change is one of the parts of the process that brings out the desired effects in the finished product, according to the company.
The water, instead of being cleaned then discharged in line with local regulations, will be cleaned and reused, with no product contact, in the cooling tower as “makeup” water, replacing water that evaporates.
“In doing so, we will no longer need to draw on freshwater for this purpose, ultimately reducing city water usage,” the company said.
That construction was the vast majority of Van Buren’s commercial new construction permitted in 2025. The city had three new commercial construction projects with a combined value of $5.28 million, a city report shows. That is a 41.2% decrease from the $8.99 million value of 10 new commercial projects in 2024.
RESIDENTIAL WORK
On the residential side, the city did not see huge growth in housing, but the additional duplexes were a good addition, Martin said.
There were 34 new duplexes and multifamily units permitted in 2025, up 512% from six units built in 2024. The city reported 19 new single-family home construction projects in the year with a total value of $4.175 million, a 33.2% decrease from $6.248 million with 24 new single-family homes built in 2024.
“We did see a lot of remodels and additions instead of as many new projects,” Martin said.
Looking at what is to come in 2026, Martin said there is talk of a new motel coming to town.
“But until we see plans, it’s hard to get too excited,” he said.