North Bay set record for construction values in 2021

Everywhere you look along Trillium Drive and Turner Drive, developers are building houses from the ground up.

North Bay ended its biggest building year on record with a bang as construction values for 2021 climbed to more than $153 million.

“As we were walking over here, the construction workers were asking what we were doing and I told them we’re announcing our numbers and they told us ‘We can’t keep up. The demand is so great,’” said North Bay Mayor Al McDonald.

The previous record of $101 million was set in 2006. That figure is $52 million shy of the new record set last year. Commercial and industrial building permits also increased to just shy of $10 million and $12 million respectively.

“In 2019 our pre-pandemic numbers hit our second highest building numbers in our history. So the trend was there,” said McDonald.

Local developer Joe Rogers is the owner of Bay Builders. His company built 24 homes in 2021 and is already taking contracts into 2023.

“In the past, we would have built 16 or 17 homes,” he said. “The level of the houses were in the $350,000-$400,000 range. “Now we’re seeing much larger homes and much more finished.”

Residential homes saw the largest increase at $78 million, up from $72.6 million in October. This included 245 new units for the year.

“Folks are coming up from Toronto and other outlying areas. 2021 was a great year for us,” said Rogers.

A large project on the horizon included in the latest figure from the city is the 160-bed Sienna development, a redevelopment of Water’s Edge. It’s set to open in 2023.

“We were named one of the top 20 places in Canada to invest and we can take pride in that. We have a very pro-development, pro-business council,” said McDonald.

As he leaves his role as mayor this fall, McDonald said he is hopeful construction values will be even higher in 2022.