Crown Point housing starts drop in 2007

BY MARISA KWIATKOWSKI, Times of Northwest Indiana
mkwiatkowski@nwitimes.com

CROWN POINT | Crown Point has not been immune to the nationwide housing slump.

The number of building permits issued for single-family residences in 2007 was the lowest it has been in six years, according to the Crown Point Plan Commission's annual report.

Single-family housing starts in the city dropped about 30 percent in the past year, from 249 in 2006 to 172 in 2007, statistics show.

Planning Director Curt Graves said the numbers are a reflection of what he believes is happening throughout the region.

"That's what I see on the TV and read in the newspapers," he said of the 30 percent drop. "The housing world runs in cycles like that."

The high-end Ellendale Farms and midpriced Waterside Crossing subdivisions tied for most housing starts in 2007, according to the report. The city issued 27 single-family building permits for development in each.

While the city's residential development staggered, its commercial and industrial growth soared.

Commercial and industrial building activity more than doubled in value since 2006 and is the highest it has been since 2000, statistics show. Crown Point issued building permits for projects totaling a $53 million construction value in 2007.

"We've had a heck of a lot more commercial projects," Graves said. "The list goes on and on and on."

St. Anthony Medical Center topped the list with permits valued at $16 million for medical offices, $4 million for remodeling its intensive care unit and $1.9 million for remodeling its admitting area, according to the annual report.

Crown Point Community Schools came in second, with permits valued at nearly $9.2 million for additions to the high school.

The leaps in commercial and industrial growth overcame the drop in residential building and boosted Crown Point to its second-highest total construction value, according to the report.

The total construction value for all permits issued in Crown Point in 2007 totaled $120 million. The city's highest recorded value was $135.4 million in 2005.