The pace of construction in Kamloops remains red hot, now nine months into 2019.

Building and engineering development manager Jason Dixon says nearly $22.4 million worth of building permits went through city hall last month. He says more than $19.5 million of that value was for residential construction.

“There was a permit for 24 units in a multi-family dwelling on Lorne Street that went out, that was $5.9 million dollars. And then we issued permits for a mixed-use development on Tranquille Road that’s 28 units, and that was a $4-million-dollar permit. So the two of those together really are a big portion of the monthly construction total.”

Dixon says there are still more than 100 permit applications in the cue for residential developments.

“And we have over 60 permits in the cue on the commercial side. We’ve been trying a few things on the staffing to try to keep up with the applications. They seem to be coming in as fast as we can get them out, even with putting some extra pressure on them.”

Kamloops city staff issued $209.6 million worth of building permits in the first nine months of this year, compared to $186.5 million at this time last year.

Will we see a third straight record construction value in 2019?

“We could… But at this point I wouldn’t be willing to say we’re going to get there,” Dixon says. “It depends on the value of permits we have in hand, when they get processed, what gets picked up, etcetera, and actually gets out the door. But by all accounts, it’s still a very very strong year.”