By CRAIG FREILICH

Commercial building projects are dominating construction activity in the greater Canton-Potsdam area this year, following a slow start.

In Canton village, improvements are under way at the Best Western University Inn, the interior of Canton-Potsdam Hospital’s E.J. Noble Center, and St. Lawrence University roads and plazas. In the Town of Canton, major construction projects are taking place at Parkway Chevrolet and Frazer Computing.

And in the works is the planned $20 million 55,000 square foot St. Lawrence Health Services complex, but no building permit has yet been issued.

In Potsdam, renovations are in store for Clarkson Hall downtown, a new chiller on Clarkson University’s hill campus, and ongoing updates at Canton-Potsdam Hospital.

“All the code officers I’ve spoken with said there was a slow start this year,” said Mike Boysuk, Town of Potsdam CEO. But as soon as there was a streak of warm weather, “there was an uptick in building activity.”

Commercial Outpaces Residential

Russell B. Lawrence IV, code enforcement officer (CEO) for both the village and the town of Canton, says 89 permits were issued in the village in 2013, for work worth $11,475,032; 111 permits in 2014 for projects valued at $8,075,159; and 66 permits through July 31 this year for work worth $2,689,895.

Major projects include improvements to Best Western’s entryway and parking lot and renovation of the interior in the older part of the E.J. Noble Center on Outer East Main Street.

In the town, 64 permits have been issued this year through July 31, with an estimated construction cost of $1,151,511. Through all of 2014, 108 permits were approved, representing construction costs of $3,527,167. And in 2013, permits were issued for 81 projects worth an estimated $1,707,522.

Parkway Chevrolet at 1651 County Rt. 25 is making renovations, and Frazer Computing, along U.S. Rt. 11, has begun construction of a three-story 18,000 square foot addition.

Five new houses have been issued building permits in the town so far this year. “That’s down a bit this year” compared with recent years, Lawrence said. “We might get to 10 this year. The average has been about 16 a year, but it’s kind of tight this year. Lending is kind of tight.”

“When we get into the town, and we’re light on new residential starts, we kind of make up for that with a couple of good, sizable commercial projects,” Lawrence said. “It’s odd, but it seems to work out that way.”

Another major project going forward in the Town of Canton is the new 55,000 square-foot complex St. Lawrence Health Services plans to build on Rt. 11 north of the village. Lawrence said the site plan has been approved but no application for a building permit has been received yet.

Fewer Permits, Higher Cost

In all of 2014, 235 building permits were issued in the Village of Potsdam, compared with 130 through August this year. But the estimated value of the work begun this year so far -- $11,855,011 – easily outstrips the value of all 2014 projects, which totaled an estimated $7,989,886.

The projects permitted in the village this year include renovations at Clarkson Hall downtown, installation of a new chiller system at Clarkson’s CAMP West building, and ongoing updates at Canton-Potsdam Hospital, Potsdam Village CEO Greg Thompson said.

Last year’s big project was the multi-million dollar solar array built by Clarkson next to the airport along Rt. 11B.

In the Town of Potsdam, CEO Boysuk said 177 building permits were issued in 2013, 157 in 2014, and 114 through Sept. 1 this year.

Building permit fees, which reflect the estimated value of the projects, totaled $9,176 in 2013, $$10,820 in 2014, and $4,773 in the eight months through Sept. 1 this year.

As in the village, activity started slow, Boysuk said, but as the season progresses, “we are getting big projects that need to be looked at several times, like modular homes, but not so many smaller things like roof replacement this year.

“And we’ve had a marked increase in bed-and-breakfasts,” Boysuk said, such as the new one, The Guest House, next to the restaurant 1844 House on U.S. Rt. 11. “This year three B&Bs have gone through. I think it’s indicative of people trying to make more with what they’ve got.”

Taking that idea further, Boysuk believes an increase in people starting small business projects such as the flea market going in on outer Market Street where the Sugar Shack was “is a way for people to help make ends meet.”

He said he thinks the drop-off recently in the smaller home projects like roofing and siding is the result of some catching up with such projects last year and the year before that had been on hold since the economic reversal six and seven years ago.

“Maybe they did what they had to in the last couple of years when things got better,” and now that those maintenance jobs are done, the upward curve flattened out again.

Tough Winter For Contractors

“This winter – the last couple of winters, really – were terrible for contractors. They didn’t start getting permit applications until well into April and May because of the ice and snow.”

“The ‘building season,’ as you may recall, started out hot and somewhat dry,” said Village of Potsdam Code Enforcement Officer Greg Thompson. “These types of weather conditions are very conducive to lots of building activity, especially after what felt like such a long, drawn out winter. Activity in the village picked up very rapidly as we expected,” he said.

But things like that don’t continue unabated.

“The weather turned cooler and we experienced more rain and wet conditions. This slowed down the rate of application requests. Even after things dried out and we began to warm up again the number of application requests remained slow,” he said. But there was another change in the weather trend and “we have once again seen an increase in the number of application requests leading to an increase in construction activity.

“I don't see us dramatically behind where we were last (year) at all, in fact we are probably going to end up with about the same number of permits issued when all is said and done,” Thompson said.