After closing 2020 on a high, building permit activity in Windsor started 2021 quietly.

The City of Windsor’s latest construction activity report for the month shows a total value of $25.1 million in permits. That figure is lower than the total recorded in December 2020 ($45.3 million) and in January 2020 ($37.8 million).

The city issued 132 permits for the month. Of that total, 125 were for construction in the residential sector. Permit values there were just slightly below $18.5 million for the month. Activity in the non-residential sector was led by $5.7 million worth of industrial permits, $933,000 worth of activity in the government and institutional sector, and just $15,000 worth of commercial-sector activity.

Compared with January 2020, the drop in activity in the government and institutional sector was particularly sharp. For the same month last year, that sector alone recorded nearly $24 million worth of permits. The value of commercial permits was down nearly $1.9 million compared with January 2020.

The City of Windsor issued two large-value permits in January 2021. One, for $8 million, was for the construction of a six-storey, multi-unit residential building and site services at 1600 Lauzon Road.

The building is part of a broader development by Farhi Holdings Corporation to create as many as 440 one- and two-bedroom units on a vacant parcel of land adjacent to the WFCU Centre. The project is expected to generate about 200 local construction jobs over the next two to four years.

The city also issued a permit worth $5.5 million for site work and construction of a new retaining wall at the K+S Windsor Salt mine on Morton Drive.