Building Held Its Own | Community – Yankton Daily Press

A number of smaller projects, robust housing unit builds and an uptick in do-it-yourself (DIY) work helped ensure a better-than-expected year for Yankton on building permits in 2020.

Though 2020 lacked some of the major projects that have dominated the last five years, 2020 saw the city permit projects worth $32,405,693 in valuations, just above the $30 million 10-year valuation average.

Community & Economic Development Director Dave Mingo told the Press & Dakotan that this wasnt seen as a sure thing as 2020 began.

We had some worries in the beginning of the year regarding materials pricing and things like that which we thought might have a negative impact on peoples investments in property improvements, Mingo said. For the most part, that was not the case. Home improvement projects kind of carried the day a little bit.

He said to do as well as the city did was unexpected, but not unwelcome.

I had braced myself for news that wasnt near as good as it ended up being, he said. Im happy that people still had confidence to invest in their property and continue on with projects at a level above our 10-year average. To me, that was the biggest surprise of 2020. I thought we were going to end up maybe 20% down or even more.

Mingo said it wasnt just improvements to property that helped, though.

From a housing unit standpoint, we had an excellent year, he said. There were 82 housing units created and that includes all types of housing single-family all the way through apartments.

Though not technically counted as housing units, 2020 also marked the first addition of congregate living units to Yankton since 2014 thanks to the new Mount Marty University (MMU) residence hall, the Rickenbach Suites. This structure brought 96 units of congregate living to Yankton.

Thats a lot of new beds in the community and a lot of space for people to reside, Mingo said. Having those 96 units up at Mount Marty, of course, helps keep our workforce housing more available to those folks rather than where those students might have taken space.

The last few years have seen some major projects approved that helped the city set permitting records, including the expansion of the 1972 water treatment plant, the Ruth Donohoe First Fieldhouse at MMU and the initial phases of the Westbrook Estates project.

While 2020 didnt have any projects quite as large as these, some permits that helped boost valuations included the MMU dorm, new townhomes in the Fox Run neighborhood, Horizon Health clinic, a new equipment room addition at Cimpls, the Lewis & Clark Veterinary Clinic, the new Dairy Queen on Broadway Ave., remodeling at the Yankton Medical Clinic and NorthWestern Energys new facility on the north side of Yankton.

Mingo said the COVID-19 pandemic didnt really have much of a direct impact on building permits, though it may have encouraged some of the DIY projects seen throughout the city.

It seems like there were more DIY home improvement or remodel projects that we issued, he said. The contractors that do those sorts of projects were over-booked and tough to find if you were looking to get a project done.

Looking ahead to 2021, Mingo said hes thinking conservatively and that valuations will be around average, with housing sliding somewhat.

Im hoping that we can maintain somewhere near that 10-year average, he said. I dont envision a scenario where we match that same number of housing unit permit issuances, I think well be down a little bit from where we were in 2020. But I still think well be pretty close to our 10-year average on that, which is in the 50s (housing units) range for single-family housing.

However, he said some larger projects could begin to materialize soon.

There are a couple of larger commercial projects that are under review right now, so were hoping they can come to be, he said.

Follow @RobNielsenPandD on Twitter.

Read more:
Building Held Its Own | Community - Yankton Daily Press