The City of Hamilton Hits $1 Billion in Building Permits… Yet Again!
The City of Hamilton hit a major milestone in December 2016 when Ed VanderWindt, who is the city’s Chief Building Official, announced that the $1-billion threshold of new construction projects for the year had been passed. And not only that. Hamilton also set a new record for the number of Building Permits issued in a single year. As of year-end, that total stood at 8,741 and represented projects in the residential, institutional, commercial and industrial sectors.
These are all very healthy signs of a city that boasts a growing and robust economy. They are signs of a city with a bright future.
Hamilton’s building and planning staff always keep a steady watch over the volume of construction and building permits, and when the numbers verify what they know to be true, it is certainly time to celebrate and tell the world.
But construction permits worth $1 billion is nothing new for Hamilton. Incredibly, the year 2016 marked the sixth time in the past seven years that the city has hit the billion dollar figure, and that is a major achievement no matter how you look at it.
Says Ed: “The record high number of building permits is an indicator of a higher volume of many different projects, whereas in previous years, there was usually a single major project that took us over the top.”
This means that 2016 was indeed a record year for growth, and as Ed said, it wasn’t because of one particular project. But many. What’s more, there was a huge influx of building permits for small business – from newly established enterprises to those organizations which were expanding their existing operations. This is yet another indicator of the broad economic growth of the city, and it also supports the Conference Board of Canada’s recent forecast for Hamilton. The Conference Board said that the local economy should expand by a healthy 2 per cent in 2017.
“This is very affirming,” says Glen Norton, the City of Hamilton’s Director of Economic Development. “This confirms that local business owners are continuing to invest in Hamilton and there is an ongoing confidence that if you have an idea, our city is the place to make it happen.”
