Home construction on uptick in Scottsdale

Scottsdale new-home construction is showing a healthy increase even though the number of homes is relatively small.

The city issued 205 building permits for single-family homes in the fiscal year that ended June 30, an increase of 52 percent over the previous fiscal year.

The $96 million valuation of those homes, an average of $468,656 per home, was up 38 percent from 2010-11.

Scottsdale's residential construction largely is limited to custom-built houses with no large subdivisions of tract homes, said Mike Clack, city director of development services.

"I expect that trend to continue," Clack said.

Scottsdale is seeing an increase in activity on multifamily projects but only one development is under construction, Optima Sonoran Village at 68th Street and Camelback Road, he said.

A $44 million project to build 325 apartments at SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center, is expected to start this month at McDowell and Scottsdale roads.

Alliance Residential Holdings has a demolition permit to clear its site northwest of Lincoln Drive and Scottsdale Road with plans to build 264 apartments, Clack said.

Developers have submitted plans for more than 5,000 multifamily units the past two years but financing and market demand will dictate how many of the projects are built.

Scottsdale issued 24 building permits for multifamily projects in fiscal 2011-12.

That is down from 51 permits the previous year. But the valuation in that category was up 35 percent to $44.8 million and the number of housing units increased 25 percent to 227.

The category includes apartments, townhouses and condominiums.

In other building-permit categories, the valuation of commercial remodeling projects totaled $69.2 million in 2011-12, up 30 percent from the prior year.

Commercial tenant improvements surged 22 percent to $33.7 million.

The valuation of home remodeling increased 19 percent to $22.3 million.

"We're seeing a little bit of a pickup," Clack said. "It seems to be pretty steady."

The number of building plans submitted in Scottsdale fell from about 7,500in 2007-08 to 5,900 the following year and is back up to 6,890 in the past fiscal year, he said.

by Peter Corbett - Aug. 10, 2012 The Republic | azcentral.com



Home construction on uptick in Scottsdale