From staff reports

news@joplinglobe.com

Construction in Joplin continues to lag behind the pace set last year, according to building permits filed with the city in July.

Nearly $6.8 million in construction projects were issued permits in July in the city, compared with $11.2 million in July 2007, according to the city’s monthly reports.

Construction from Nov. 1, 2007, through July 31 — the first nine months of the city’s fiscal year — came to $58.8 million, compared with $103.7 million for the same period a year earlier.

That’s off nearly $45 million from the pace set last year, which was a record for Joplin building. In 2007, $128.1 million in construction projects received permits in Joplin.

The city’s fiscal year runs from Nov. 1 to Oct. 31. The permits do not include any work taking place outside the city limits, such as construction of the two new middle schools for the Joplin R-8 School District or the Downstream Casino Resort and hotel just across the Oklahoma line.

No seven-figure permits were filed for July, with the largest project — for a shopping center at 1702 S. Range Line Road — having an estimated value of $700,000. The next largest permit was $475,000 for a single-family dwelling in Arbor Hills.

Million-dollar-plus projects have been hard to come by this year in the city, with only three such permits filed since November. They are $3.6 million to finish out Freeman Health System’s new Women’s Health Center, and two permits, each at about $12 million, to build a recreation center and a health sciences building at Missouri Southern State University.

Housing and new-business construction have both dropped in Joplin, according to building permits.

In the first nine months of the city’s fiscal year, 68 new-home permits were filed, valued at $10.9 million, compared with 113 permits last year, valued at $15.2 million.

Thirteen new-business permits have been filed so far this fiscal year, valued at $28.4 million, compared with 34 for the same period last year, valued at $61.4 million.

Year by year