By Kelly Young

kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com

The city of Jacksonville’s Public Works Department permitted only $258,960 worth of residential and commercial construction projects in April, the lowest total in more than a year. The number looks even worse when to the $722,819.89 worth of work permitted in April 2008.

However, Building Official Jody Watson said the city will be able to weather a few comparatively weak months because of the sheer abundance of commercial construction projects that have come through in the past six months.

During that time two hotel chains (Holiday Inn Express and La Quinta Inn & Suites) have acquired permits to build new locations in town, two of the community’s institutions of higher learning (Lon Morris College and the Baptist Missionary Alliance Seminary) have initiated new on-campus additions, East Texas Medical Center is still constructing its new fitness center and Chicken Express has decided to come to town.

“You kind of have to expect a few weak months after the strong months that we have been having. When you go up to the plate six months in a row and have some great hits, you know you are going to have a bad at-bat sooner or later,” Watson said. “We are still in very good shape for the year, and hopefully we will see this recover a bit in the next couple of months.”

Even with April’s lackluster showing, the first four months of 2009 have yielded nearly $3 million more in new construction than the same period in 2008. Thus far this calendar year, $5,056,154 worth of work has been permitted by the city, compared to $2,061,534.14 through April of last year.

The city approved 13 permits last month, all for remodels or repairs of existing structures, and nine of those were residential properties.

As evidenced by April’s permits, Watson said he typically sees an increase in the number of people applying for permits for residential remodeling projects during the spring and summer months.

“We absolutely issue more permits in the spring; normally you see a lot of small projects taking place during those months. Commercially they will break ground at any time, but private homeowners typically wait until warmer weather to get their work started,” he said.

Commercial projects in Jacksonville in April included nearly $10,000 worth of work to repair fire damage at Speedy Products, $2,000 worth of work to take out a wall and expand the interior of Neon Country Club and $5,000 worth of work to add a shower to the East Texas Support Services disaster relief shelter.

According to Watson, more commercial expansion may be coming on the horizon, as a number of national retailers — who do not want to be identified — have contacted the city regarding potential expansion into Jacksonville. He also said ETMC is currently considering adding a sizable amount of money, possibly as much as $500,000, to its existing fitness center permit.

Following are all the building permits issued by the city in April:

William McDaniel, 406 Dogwood, Single family remodel, $1,500;

Larry Murdock, 213-215 Walnut, Single family duplex, $99,000;

Martin Cortez, 111 South, Single family remodel , $800;

Angela Carrizal, 513 Georgia, Single family remodel, $1,500

Rodriguez, 308 N. Bolton, Commercial remodel, $200

Abel Rosales, 109 Canada, Single family remodel, $460;

Cody Carroll, 2505 Lake Shore, Single family remodel , $7,000

Efrin Montes, 301 Hazel, Single family remodel, $1,500

Speedy Products, 225 Cash, Commercial remodel, $9,400

Bill Thompson, 309 Dublin, Single family remodel , $600

Neon Country, 954 N. Jackson, Commercial remodel , $2,000

East Texas Support Services, 508 E. Commerce, Commercial remodel, $5,000

Kara Hancock, 2117 Cardinal, Single family addition, $130,000

Total residential and commercial value: $258,960.