Record-breaking year for Oshawa construction – notably in residential
Published January 26, 2022 at 9:50 am
Oshawa reported a robust year for building permits in 2021, with eleven records broken and more than half a billion dollars in total construction value issued.
The City reported its second highest annual total construction value on record with $564,582,600 in building permits. Construction was across all sectors, though with 82 per cent of that value in residential homes, the preference would be to decrease the reliance on residential.
Development Services Chair Tito-Dante Marimpietri said changing the reliance on residential development to industrial/commercial projects “doesn’t happen overnight” but he believes the focus on customer service and the “timeliness” of permits is finally starting to pay dividends.
“We need to be known as the best to do business with, while keeping a keen eye on the community’s needs,” he said. “The groundwork and efforts we’ve made are starting to shift toward balance by focusing on the industrial sector and the good paying jobs that it attracts.”
Residential permits issued in Oshawa neared $468 million, which included nearly 1,400 residential units: 622 townhomes, 454 singles, 172 ‘accessory’ dwellings, 121 apartment units and two semi-detached homes. Some of the bigger projects included the $6 million Podium Developments project on Pleasure Valley Path and six apartment buildings on Beresford Path (Crowncove Investments) worth $12.6 million.
To complement the rapid pace of residential growth with job creation, $51.5 million in commercial, $36.6 million in industrial and $8.5 million in governmental/institutional permits were also issued last year.
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Among the biggest projects issued in 2021 was Costco Wholesale Canada in north Oshawa. With an investment of $24 million, this project will bring hundreds of new jobs to Oshawa when it opens, likely late in 2022.
Oshawa also welcomed Lakeside Business Centre, a new multi-tenant $11 million industrial building by Beedie on Property Ltd., at 1155 Boundary Road.
With the recent announcement of Northwood Business Park, the City is setting its sights on the next wave of job creation and economic growth.
“In Northwoods alone we already have nearly 2.5 million square feet in the queue, with another four million on its way and of course all of the good paying jobs that they will create,” Marimpietri said.
With GM Canada’s recent hiring of 1,800 workers for pickup truck production at the re-opened Oshawa Assembly Plant, the Conference Board of Canada projects manufacturing output in Oshawa will grow by 8.5 per cent in 2022, with GDP growth expected during the same year at 4.7 per cent.
Eleven building permit records broken in a pandemic year help as well. Those records are:
- Highest number of permits issued in June (smashing a record set 45 years ago in 1976)
- Highest number of permits issued in April (2015)
- Highest number of permits issued in August (2006)
- Highest residential value (2007)
- Highest industrial value issued in May (1980)
- Highest commercial value issued in July (2015)
- Highest number of Townhouses issued in April on record (1977)
- Highest number of Townhouses issued in August (1976)
- Highest number of Accessory Apartments issued in June (2020)
- Highest number of Accessory Apartments issued in July (2020)
- Highest number of Accessory Apartments issued in October (2020)
It was also Oshawa’s second highest total construction value year on record, trailing only 2017’s total of $614,343,700.
Oshawa has kept yearly building values since 1964 and monthly statistics since 1965.
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