New Construction Declines in Jackson and Cape Girardeau
Date Posted: December 16, 2015
Posted In: News,
From the Southeast Missourian: The number of new homes and businesses being built in Cape Girardeau and Jackson dropped this year.
Because a few weeks remain in the year, the results aren’t final. But with the totals through October in Cape Girardeau and through November in Jackson, 2015 is turning out to be a less eventful year in the development services office than in previous years.
Through October, 34 permits for single-family homes with a total value of nearly $8.6 million had been issued in Cape Girardeau this year.
The city granted 53 permits in 2014, with values of more than $12 million.
Over the last five years, the number of building permits issued by the City of Cape Girardeau has fluctuated.
From 2011 to 2014, Cape Girardeau averaged 55.5 building permits each year, peaking in 2012, when 62 permits were authorized.
The number of permits for constructing apartment units has dropped as well, with a permit for one duplex and one 10-unit apartment complex issued between January and October.
This is small compared to a surge in multi-family permits in 2013 and 2014 (42 and 55 permits, respectively) but an improvement from 2011, when no apartment permits were issued.
Non-residential or commercial permits remained relatively consistent over the years, although after a spike in 2014 of 15 permits, only six have been issued between January and October.
The higher numbers in recent years came because they followed the period in 2007 to 2009 when the economy tanked, Molly Hood, deputy city manager of Cape Girardeau, said.
“For several years following that, we saw a big increase in permits,” she said.