House construction starts up this year By Ray Martin, Times Staff

Business Dec 30, 2008 

Though banks, government, media and many economists are forecasting future doom and gloom, there is the occasional bright spot.

According to the latest statistics from the city's building department, new construction this year in Cambridge will likely meet levels not seen since 2006.

"We definitely had a rough start, but the last half of 2008 has been really good," said chief building official Hardy Bromberg.

In boom times, Cambridge building inspectors have seen as many as 700 homes built a year. Bromberg said he expects as many as 600 new homes for 2008.

At a meeting last week with his counterparts from Kitchener, Guelph and Brantford, Bromberg said Cambridge was the only city not to have experienced a downturn in construction. He said much of that success is "pent up demand in one particular subdivision".

The bulk of new construction is taking place in the Mattamy Homes subdivision in north Hespeler. There is also construction taking place in Galt, south of Myers Road.

According to house construction statistics released in November, 467 permits were issued in 2008 with a value of $93.2 million. In 2007, 165 permits were issued during the same period with a construction value of just $39.4 million.

The year-to-date total for all construction in 2008 is 1,122 permits issued with a value of $117.4 million. In 2007, 939 permits were issued with a value of just over $145 million.

Bromberg reports that this year building permits have been issued on 335 single family homes, 119 townhouses, 53 apartment units, and 15 other conversions.

"We expect that there is enough work there that we'll see a good start to 2009, but we expect things will slow in the second half of the year," he said.

Meanwhile, city officials have their figures crossed that developers will dig into a number of projects in 2009.

"It would be good to see Waterscape, Heartwood Place and some other infill projects get going," Bromberg said.

Waterscape on the Grand Condominiums is slated to build twin apartment towers overlooking the Grand River just north of the Park Hill Road dam, while Heartwood Place is a seven-storey apartment building geared to low-income families which will be built on the site of the former Cambridge Reporter.

Also waiting in the wings is a massive subdivision in southeast Galt. Servicing of parts of that new subdivision cannot be undertaken until the city completes the new Moffatt Creek trunk sewer line, which was held up this year after project costs skyrocketed. City staff pulled the plug on the project for 2008, but plan to add further funding for it in the 2009 budget.

In addition, the city's new Boxwood industrial subdivision is slated to be serviced and available for sale next summer.

* Courtesy of The Cambridge Times