CLEVELAND, Tenn. –City and county data show the impact of the recession on commercial building in Cleveland and Bradley County.
“We felt the economic pinch like everybody else,” said Greg Thomas, Cleveland’s director of community development. “But we certainly are anticipating good things to happen here.”
Cleveland issued 29 building permits valued at just more than $5 million in 2009. That compares to 149 permits value at $60 million in 2007 and 58 valued at $66 million in 208.
But Mr. Thomas said the city has not been hit as hard by the recession as other communities, and added that new investments in the region by Wacker Chemical and Volkswagen have been beneficial.
County permits show also fell off sharply over that period.
While 50 building permits were granted in the unincorporated county from 2005-2008, only four were issued in 2009. According to the latest data available, just one county building permit has been granted so far this year.
Bradley County commercial building permits:Year Number Value2010 1 $30,0002009 4 $963,0002008 9 $2,295,6302007 9 $11,892,2922006 17 $1,957,9992005 15 $3,442,789Source: Bradley County Inspections DepartmentTOP 5Top five Bradley permit values over last five years:$8,110,000: Hiwassee Utilities in 2007$3,369,777: Lowe’s truck stop in 2007$869,000: Hiwassee Utility Water Treatment Plant in 2008$820,000: Tri-State in 2006$712,700: Tri-state warehouse in 2008Cleveland building permitsYear Number Value2009 29 $5,058,1792008 58 $66,231,9002007 149 $60,353,9462006 150 $38,960,0942005 36 $24,459,372Source: Cleveland Inspections DepartmentTop five Cleveland permit values in 2009$1 million: Chattanooga Kidney Center, January$925,000: Dentist’s office and shell, April$654,000: Cooke’s food store remodel, December$453,000: Habitat for Humanity ReStore, January$409,721: O’Reilly Auto Parts, March
County Mayor D. Gary Davis stressed that most commercial and industrial properties tend to be built inside city limits regardless, but said he recognized that local growth has slowed due to the recession.
“When you go to build a business, it’s nearly always in the city limits,” he said. “If you’re going to build a new Walmart, you’re not going to build it outside of Cleveland.”
The 29 commercial building permits issued in Cleveland last year was the lowest number in the decade. The annual average for the decade was 112.
The largest permit issued by the city last year was to the Chattanooga Kidney Center, valued at $1 million.
Only one industrial building permit was granted by the city in the last five years. That was for Whirlpool plant construction in 2007. Ten years ago, in 2000 alone, 13 industrial permits were issued.
Don Wyatt, the county’s building inspector, noted that if values of recent church and school construction investments were included in the figures, construction value has actually increased over the same period. When the recession began, however, local companies began using capital investments for smaller improvements, he said.
“The last thing they’re going to do is go out and build a new building,” Mr. Wyatt said.
The largest commercial permit issued in the county last year was valued at $680,000 for an Ocoee Utilities operations center on Rymer Road. The county issued only four building permits last year, estimated at $963,000, the lowest figure in the past five years.
The future for construction “remains very, very weak on the commercial side,” said William Fox, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee. “It’s a more difficult environment than it was in the mid-2000s.”
It now takes a great idea and a clear plan to secure lending for building projects, he said.
“Financing will remain somewhat of an issue in the near term because regulators are watching the financial institutions more closely,” he said.
The city has reduced its staff of full-time building inspectors from four to two because of the sharp decrease in building permits, city Finance Director Mike Keith said.
A rebound is beginning to take place, however, Dr. Fox said, though he believes it will be a few years before the economy fully returns.
While the housing market is improving and growing faster than commercial construction, it’s nowhere near the peak it reached five years ago, he said.
Still, the value of Cleveland’s residential building permits has already nearly doubled last year’s value for the entire calendar year. Permits valued at $18.4 million were issued from January to April 2010. Only $9.5 million worth of permits were issued in 2009.
Continue reading by following this link to a related story:
Article: Business license numbers grow in Cleveland, Bradley