From manufacturing to retail to homes and apartments, the build is on. The latest numbers out Friday on the building permits in Sioux Falls show that the value of construction in the city is on track to outpace pre-recession years.
Three major building projects helped the city end the month of February with $84.5 million dollars in building permits.
The Scheels addition was the biggest project at $17.5 million. The Hilton Garden Inn Hotel on the River Greenway downtown comes in at $11.5 million. And the Ireland-based cereal ingredient processing facility, Glanbia, is the only manufacturing permit at $5 million.
"Having this large manufacturing distribution in Sioux Falls that adds a whole new industry aspect and more will look at Sioux Falls and say they want to be here also," Jeff Schmitt of the Sioux Falls City Planning Department said.
But some the largest gains are coming from residential construction. About half of the $22.5 million in residential building permits issued this year are for five apartment buildings. The rest is for single-family homes.
"We're up 22 percent from last year and we're up 126 percent from two years ago. It's great. We're loving it," Kevin Zomermaand of the Home Builders Association of the Sioux Empire said.
Zomermaand says people who've been on the fence the last couple of years are taking the plunge and building custom homes.
"It seems like every person who works for me is looking for help. If anybody's looking for a job, you can't say there are none around. There are a lot of them. Everybody's looking for help right now," Zomermaand said.
"People are going to have jobs in the construction trades; that hopefully leads to more people able to buy things because they have paychecks," Schmitt said.
While the number of single-family permits is at 55 for the end of February, the value is high.
"We are seeing a lot more higher-end homes going up. With interest rates in the fours or even threes, look how much money we can borrow for this little amount; let's get into while we can," Zomermaand said.
Spring is typically the busiest time for building and March is already starting off with a bang when it comes to permits. Dick's Sporting Goods filed a $4 million permit to build an anchor store onto the Empire Mall.
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