Page A12 —~ Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 2, 1990

BUSINESS REVIE

House building

TERRACE — The number of homes being built in the city this year will pass the number built ‘in 1989 by this month, indicate figures from city hall.

Building inspector Paul. Gipps said last week 26 building permits were approved leading to the end of April and five or six were waiting to be process- ed.

That makes more than 30 when March’s figures are taken into account and stands in com- parison to the 32 home building permits granted in all of 1989.

“It’s a good year. They (the permits) just keep coming across my desk,’’ said Gipps.

He attributed the increase to a lack of single residential dwellings in the city and to peo- ple wanting new homes before the proposed Goods and Ser- vices Tax takes hold next year.

A good number of the new

homes are going up on Moun- tain Vista and McConnell on the bench while others are going up on vacant [ots on Medeek, Haugland and Agar, said Gipps. . He estimated the average value of the permits at 590,000 while a couple are in the $220,000 range. Only one home is in the $70,000-$75 ,000 category.

When combined with the start of Phase II of the Twin River Estate senior housing pro- ject and the Muks-Kom-Ol Housing Society’s townhouse project, there are now more than 100 housing units under construction, said Gipps.

“We're certainly one of the

THERE'S LOTS of new house construction going on in Terrace with building permits this year already over the amount issued for all of 1989. Part of the demand comés from people wanting new homes before the federal Goods and Services Tax takes hold next year, Shown here is Bob Shaver working on a house on Mountain Vista Drive on the bench.

more active cities in the nor- thwest. Smithers is alsa going strong,’’ he said.

One of the more active com- panies involved in the local housing market is Nelson Great Western manufactured homes and it is having a good year, says salesman Russ Shauer.

“‘There’s really nothing available existing. I’m getting phone calls every day by in- terested people. Homes that are 10-15 years old are going for

$100,000 and people know they

can get a mew one for that

amount,’’ he said.

At the same time, Shauer said high interest rates could have an effect on home construction as the year progresses.

As with Gipps, Shauer said some of the construction is due to people wanting homes built before the Goods and Services Tax comesin. |

But while there haven’t been

Kermodei to shut down

TERRACE — Bruce Toms of Kermodei Construction is shut- ting the company down because ‘he says he can’t make any money...

“The (construction) ‘market

doesn't: justify the risk in this.

area. The return on investment isn’t goad enough for the risk,”’ said Toms last week.

“TY can make more selling shoes than I can building a building,” he added.

Kermodei Construction was formed in 1988 and has under- taken three large contracts amounting to approximately $3 million in the area. The first was the extended care addition at Terraceview Lodge, the second was the newly-completed com- bined services building at the Terrace airport and the third was the renovations at the Ter- race Co-op. Kermodei also did an expansion at the Smithers airport.

Kermodei drew opposition from building trades unions because its workers were

Shopping Centre put off

TERRACE — Okanagan- Skeena Group has again put back plans to build a shopping complex on its property bound- ed by Lakelse Ave. and Ottawa St.

““We want to wait acouple of J

years,’ said company official Bryan Edwards last week. He declined to outline reasons for the decision.

The company already owns the building housing the Bank of Commerce and the liquor

_ store arid the adjacent building containing retail outlets,

_ Okanagan-Skeena will in-

. stead, said: Edwards, repair a

portion of a roof and paint the exterior of the buildings. .

Such work. won't conflict

‘with the company’s building plans, when it does go ahead with the development, he said. Okanagan-Skeena first an- nourced’it wanted to build on the property in 1988 but set back that date last June until sometime this year. In January, it ‘said. it was reconsidering the kind of: development it. wanted to do,

The: estimated ‘cost of “the:

development, including value of the’ land Nas: 3: millloth, we

represented by the General Workers Union of B.C., a ‘union the others said represented employers more than it did employees.

Affected by the closure are 14 people, said Toms.

A shutdown date hasn't been set because Kermodei has a small amount of work to com- plete at the Co-op and at the air- port.

Toms said Kermodei’s best project was the Co-op renova- tion and the most frustrating ones were working for the federal government’s Public Works Canada, the agency which handles construction con- tracts,

“They're a poor client to work for, It takes far to long to get paid — three to four mon- ths. You never know when the

money’s going to arrive or how much,”’ he said.

Toms said he’ll be moving to southern Vancouver Island. to find wi werk once. Kermodei : fs finished with its projects,

a lot of homes on the market in the past while, realtor Stan ‘Parker and public relations chairman of the Northwest Real Estate Board said the amount is going up now that spring is here.

“The market is quite bouyant out there,.It’s more active than last spring,’’ said Parker.

He added that the average home falls within the $80,000-$100,000 price range and that the price of homes is gradually going up,

nh tht eee

Gipps also reported a strong increase in commercial con- struction and lots of speculation of further development.

Those include a new Copper- side, a new three-storey office building on Kalum and a new furniture store.

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