Fort Smith metro building permit values down 22% through February

Building permit values in Fort Smith, Greenwood and Van Buren totaled $43.352 million in February, down 15% from the $51.09 million reported in January and down 52% from the $121.362 million in February 2022.

Year-to-date the region has issued permits for building activity valued at $94.442 million, down 22.2% from the first two months of 2022.

Fort Smith issued 333 permits in February with a value of $35.817 million, down 26.1% from the $48.436 million value of 310 permits issued in January and down 2.9% from the $36.873 million with 134 permits issued in February of last year. Year-to-date Fort Smith has reported $84.253 million in building projects, up 28.9% from the $65.382 million reported in the first two months of 2022.

There were 22 permits issued for new residential construction in the month with a value of $8.036 million, up 169% from the $2.987 million value of 12 new residential commercial projects permitted in January and up 113% from the $3.78 million value of 22 new residential permits issued in February 2022.

February saw additions, renovations and repairs at several commercial properties that brought the commercial construction permitted value higher. Two “other” permits were issued for a $4 project at 4400-4500 Regions Park Drive in Chaffee Crossing for three warehouses and for a $7.6 million project at 2219 S. Waldron road for a storage building and parking lot. Fort Smith Public Schools also received permits for around $5 million in “other” work for three school sites – Ballman Elementary, Kimmons Middle School and Park Elementary School. The three schools and others in the district have indoor air quality projects ongoing this year. Kimmons also has a cafeteria project slated this year, according to Shawn Shaffer, executive director of facility operations.

VAN BUREN AND GREENWOOD
Van Buren, the region’s second largest city, had 65 projects permitted in February with a value of $7.006 million, up 310% from the $1.71 million value of 59 projects in January but down 80% from the $35.014 million value of 43 projects permitted in February 2022.

The city issued 21 permits for residential construction valued at $3.76 million in the month, which included 16 permits with a total value of $2.57 million for duplexes. The total residential construction was up 289% from the $965,000 in residential construction in January and up 491% from the $636,000 in residential construction in the second month of 2022.

There were three commercial projects permitted in February with a value of $1.71 million, a 483% increase on the $553,500 value of four commercial projects permitted in January and a 91% drop from the $34.337 million value of three commercial projects permitted in February 2022, which included a $34 million permit for the Simmons Foods addition that began last year.

For the first two months of the year, Van Buren has reported $8.716 million in permitted activity, down 76.4% from the $36.874 million permitted through that same time in 2022.

Greenwood issued 11 permits in February with a combined value of $529,326, down 45% from the $945,200 value of nine permits issued in January and down 58.8% from the $1.286 million value of 11 permits issued in February 2022. Through the end of February, the city has had $1.494 million in building projects permitted, up 1.56% from the $1.471 million through February 2022.

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