Construction value within the TNRD was nearly five-times as high last month as it had been 12 months earlier.

Chief building inspector Pat Luscombe says one project in particular drove the $9.4-million-dollar value of building permits issued last month.

“Construction values rose substantially in February due to the issuance of that building permit for the commercial hotel construction in Clearwater. It was an $8 million dollar hotel that we issued a building permit for, about 20,000 square feet of building. It’s a fairly large hotel.”

Luscombe says another major commercial project approved last month was a $150,000-dollar water treatment plant in Lytton.

He says values were up last month for commercial and “other” construction.

“The other construction showed a minor increase due to continued issuance of residential building permits, for those properties that were impacted by wildfire the year before last. We’re still issuing wildfire reconstruction permits for those areas, so that brought those construction values a little higher than they have been typically at this time of year.”

Residential construction was down last month, but Luscombe says that value is expected to jump with subdivision permits expected to be brought forward soon.

The TNRD’s construction value includes its 10 electoral areas and seven smaller municipalities within the regional district.