The expansion to the Royal Inland Hospital helped push the 2020 construction value in Kamloops to a record of $395 million.

There were 1,479 permits issued last year, and the city’s building and engineering development manager Jason Dixon says three permits for the hospital project made up more than one-third of construction value for the entire year.

“There were three permits we issued for that project last year. There was an exterior cladding, and then two different permits for interior fit-outs. And all three of those permits together were $152 million dollars. So that really was the one big driver for the year. We knew that was coming.”

Dixon also points out even without the hospital project permits, there was still just under a quarter-billion dollars worth of construction last year.

“And you know, back in 2017, we set a record at $224 million. So we would’ve been $20 million higher than that. So even though it wouldn’t of been a record, even without the hospital it would’ve been an exceptionally strong construction year in Kamloops.”

To close out 2020, Dixon says city staff approved 86 building permits worth $18 million.

“The one nine-and-a-half-million-dollar permit was for a 77-unit apartment building; it’s another building that’s going to go up on the Mission Hill site. So after many years of not a lot of activity there, things are starting to happen. So that was issued in December. One other big permit we had in December was out at the Kamloops Airport; a $1.4-million-dollar permit for the Kamloops Flight Centre.”

Last year was the fourth straight year of record construction values in Kamloops.