Fairfield sees spike in building projects

Fairfield sees spike in building projects
By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | October 29, 2009

FAIRFIELD - Development is up 'significantly' this year in Fairfield, city officials reported Thursday afternoon.

Permits for commercial, industrial and residential projects were up by about 20 percent during the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period in 2008, Community Development Director Erin Beavers said. The unofficial end of the building season has passed and the numbers aren't expected to change much by the end of the year.

'What I think we can pull from this is last year was exceedingly low, well below even your typical low point in a 10-year average (and) this is showing that at least there is a recovery coming out of that, not a continuation of this really depressed level of building activity,' Beavers said.

The total value of the projects increased even more dramatically during the comparison periods. The 903 permits issued in 2009 were worth $98.3 million, while the 749 permits issued in the same period of 2008 were worth $28.5 million.

The biggest growth came in industrial development, Beavers said. He attributed that to major construction projects such as Verizon Wireless' development of a 21,000-square-foot switching station, Meyer Corp.'s 165,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility and Frank-Lin Distillers Products building a 295,000-square-foot bottling plant.

There was also improvement in commercial development, led by Walmart's 188,000-square-foot Supercenter and others.

See the complete story at the Daily Republic online.