Record year for construction in Merritt

In 2021, construction value surpassed $30 million for the first time in Merritt’s history.

“This included nearly $21 million in residential construction value. Some key projects included the 44 unit City Centre apartment building at 2230 Quilchena Avenue, Mr. Mike’s restaurant, and Barkman’s industrial facility,” stated Planning and Development Director, Don McArthur.

In total, Building Permits for 93 new units of housing were issued in 2021. There was 1 Demolition Permit issued in 2021, for a net total of 92 units of housing.

“Of note, 32 Building Permits for renovations to flood affected homes were issued in December. As staff and property owners were not aware of the total cost of the renovations for each home, a very conservative construction value of $10,000 was assigned to each file. These permits were issued free of charge to applicants, as per Council resolution,” added McArthur.

Housing continues to be a challenge in Merritt with extremely limited stock. However, as CAO Sean Smith stated recently, in the past few years permits have been increasing at City Hall.

“It really hasn’t been until 2020 and 2021 when you start to see a whole lot more development applications and building permits. But the challenge is those haven’t necessarily received their occupancy, there isn’t people in those homes yet. I think that when you break it down by a year by year basis, and the last two years is when those applications started ramping up. That will translate to population growth in 2022 and 2023,” said Smith.