Windsor permit values top $50 million in April
Construction of the Zekelman Centre of Business and Information Technology at St. Clair College has helped push building permit totals in Windsor over the $50-million mark in April.
The City of Windsor issued single permit worth $21 million for ongoing above-grade work on the building at 2000 Talbot Road. The work is a continuation of the project which broke ground last fall. The expansion project, which is valued at $23 million, will add two floors and 40,000 square feet to the southwest wing of the campus. The building will feature classrooms, student study areas, meeting rooms and offices for faculty. A large auditorium, called Alumni Hall, and Canada’s first Esports Arena will be the centerpieces of the new build.
The city also issued a permit worth $10 million for construction of a four-storey, 36-unit building on 7887 Edgar Street. The building, which is known at The Edgar, is targeting occupancy for next spring.
Other large-value permits included one for $1.95 million for alterations to the city hall building at 400 City Hall Square East to accommodate the permanent relocation of the Provincial Offences Act program, and another for $1 million for site services, grading and irrigation for the Jackson Park Greenhouse Complex on Tecumseh Road East. The new facility will include 22,000 square feet of greenhouse space, staff facilities, indoor and outdoor storage space, and site services.
All told, the city issued 246 permits for the month, for a combined total value of more than $52 million. That total is significantly higher than April of last year, when the city issued $32.2 million worth of permits, and almost double March’s total of $26.4 million. April’s strong performance also put the running year-to-date permit total ahead of 2020’s pace. Through the first four months of last year, the city issued $117.3 million worth of permits; through the same period this year, it issued $120.1 million.
Of the permits issued in the city in April, the government/institutional and residential sectors combined accounted for more than $50 million worth of activity, and 228 of the 246 total issued permits. Both were significant increases over the totals recorded in April 2020. In contrast, permit values in the commercial sector fell from $1.4 million in April 2020 to $1.2 million last month, while industrial permit values dropped from $14.2 million to just $608,000.
On a year-to-date basis, residential construction continues to be the city’s top performer. So far, nearly $74 million worth of housing permits have been issued, compared with slightly more than $29 million in the government/institutional sector, $9.7 million in industrial work, and $7.6 million in commercial work.