First Quarter Building Report Highlights Commercial Activity

The Municipality of Anchorage has reported that the total value for all categories of building permits in the first quarter of 2017 has increased by $15.26 million when compared to the first quarter of 2016. This increase is directly related to commercial permits rather than residential permits which remain at historic low levels. New commercial activity for the first quarter of this year includes a $27 million plus permit for an ODOM Distribution Warehouse. Other permits include a veterinarian office/ER building at 2545 Tudor Road awarded to Watterson Construction; Hyatt Place Hotel at E. 101 Tudor Road for $16 million; $1.47 million for an office building in mid-town and AWWU’s new waste water facility on Artillery Road in Eagle River.
 
Several building/alteration permits also increased commercial activities. They included a $2.3 million Bristol Design Building Services permit for W. 111 16h Street; a Cook Inlet Elder Housing permit for $1.32 million on CIHA’s Muldoon campus and a National Bank of Alaska mid-town permit for $3.5 million. Davis Construction and Engineers has been awarded a contract for $2.5 million in the Providence Medical campus and the MOA has pulled a $7.4 million alteration permit at 8800 Bald Eagle for the Municipal Light and Power plant.  
 
Anchorage housing permits continue to dribble along at the bottom of the market with continued historic low numbers. For the first quarter of this year, only 27 single family permits were issued, just one more than last year. Only 12 duplex units were permitted—down two from last year. So far this year only one four-plex has been permitted. This lack of housing continues to be the sore spot in our local building industry.   
 
All commercial/residential/alteration and addition permit valuations do not include any land values. The permit value is the value estimated by the MOA to establish the cost of the permit and is also used to determine the tax assessed value. All builders and developers continue to grapple with the new title 21 regulations and the increased permit values may be due in part to these new regulations.