The total value of Spokane-area building permits bumped upward in 2015 compared with a year earlier, although falling short of the record high total permit valuation of 2013. 

Permit values for 2015 in Spokane County and the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley totaled $740 million, nearly 14 percent higher than permit values of $650 million in 2014.

In 2013, permits values for the three jurisdictions peaked at just over $1 billion.

That year, however, could be considered an anomaly as the totals included permit values for the $135 million Davenport Grand Hotel, the $45 million Gonzaga University COG Center, and the $37 million Convention Center addition and expansion downtown, says Scott Simmons, business and developer services director for the city of Spokane.

The total value of permits issued by the city of Spokane last year was $326 million, up more than 4 percent from the year-earlier total of $312 million.

The project with the highest value permitted by the city in 2015 was the $12 million Spokane Teaching Health Center, at Washington State University Spokane.

In 2014, three projects exceeded the health clinic project in value, including the $40 million Summit tower project on Rockwood Retirement Communities’ South Hill campus.

Simmons says he suspects there was an upswing in more moderately valued projects that contributed to the higher total permit value in 2015, compared with a year earlier.

“We always enjoy larger projects, but we don’t want those to make or break the year,” Simmons says. “If we create a sustainable base with smaller projects—but a lot of them—larger projects would be the icing on the top.”

While 2015 values were buoyed largely by private-sector projects, Simmons says public-sector school and infrastructure projects will boost project values significantly this year.

For example, he says, the anticipated construction value for the Salk Middle School replacement project is $26 million. The building permit application for the Salk project, planned at 6411 N. Alberta in northwest Spokane, is under plan review, and permits for it are expected to be issued early this year, Simmons says.

The project is part of the $145 million school bond measure voters passed in February, about which Simmons says, “It’s going to create a robustness for a couple of years to come.”

Of the three jurisdictions, unincorporated Spokane County saw the largest increase in total permit valuations, which totaled $315 million last year, up 39 percent compared with permit valuations totaling $226 million in 2014.

The largest projects permitted by Spokane County include the $20 million Keystone Automotive Operations Inc. distribution plant on the West Plains, the $14 million Blue Point apartment complex in the Wandermere area north of Spokane, and the $12 million Pine Rock apartment complex on the upper South Hill.

In Spokane Valley, though, the 2015 total permit value fell to $98 million, down 12 percent from $112 million in 2014, marking the first time in five years that Spokane Valley’s permit values tallied less than $100 million.

Luis Garcia, development services coordinator for the city of Spokane Valley, says a significant portion of the comparatively higher total permit values in 2013 and 2014 can be attributed to five apartment complexes valued at $68 million combined.

“They have a high value as far as price per square foot,” Garcia says of multifamily projects. “Last year, we didn’t have that.”

He says, though, that a planned 204-unit apartment project that would be valued at $13 million is likely to jumpstart 2016 totals.

Garcia says that some high-value school projects also likely will be permitted this year, following voter approval last year of a $121 million bond measure for the Central Valley School District.

Through much of the Spokane area, permits issued for single-family home construction in 2015 reached the highest levels since before the Great Recession.

In 2015, 944 single-family homes with a total construction value of $252 million were permitted in unincorporated Spokane County and the city of Spokane combined, up from 686 homes permitted with a total construction value of $179 million in 2014.

A comparable breakdown of single-family home permits wasn’t immediately available from the city of Spokane Valley for 2015.

Joel White, executive officer at the Spokane Home Builders Association, says, however, that member builders are reporting growth throughout the county. 

“We’re definitely on an upward trend,” White says, noting that new home construction had dipped in 2014, compared with 2013.

“We recouped that loss and gained a little bit more to put us on a recovery track,” he says. “That’s very positive for the local economy. New construction creates significant job growth.”

The 38 percent uptick in 2015 in new-home starts in the city of Spokane and Spokane County outpaced the growth in overall home sales through the Spokane Multiple Listing Service. The MLS was trending at 17 percent growth in single-family home sales in the first 11 months of 2015, compared with the year-earlier period. 

Homebuilders also are constructing higher-value homes, White says. The average construction value for new home starts in Spokane County and the city of Spokane last year was $266,600, up 2 percent from a year earlier.

“The new-construction entry price point is a little higher than for the existing-home entry point,” he says.

For the first 11 months of 2015, the average home price for all homes sold through the MLS, 90 percent of which were existing homes, was $179,900.