County sees 42 percent drop in building permits

By Cara McCoy

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009 | 5:19 p.m.

There's more grim news for Clark County's construction sector: Numbers released Tuesday show new construction has slowed considerably, with about 42 percent fewer building permits for new construction issued last month than in January 2008.

According to records from Clark County Development Services, in January, 385 permits for new construction were issued, down from the 662 issued in January 2008.

The county reported that 90 permits were for construction of single-family homes. No permits were issued for construction of condominium units. Last January, 155 permits were issued for single-family homes and one was issued for condo construction.

The number of permits for construction of new pools and spas, garages and carports, and walls and fences, all were lower compared to last year. Forty-one permits were issued for pools and spas compared to 88 in the previous year; eight for garages and carports compared to 10 the previous year; and 104 permits for the construction of walls and fences were issued compared to 163 the year before.

Development Services issues permits in all of unincorporated Clark County.

Construction of new commercial businesses has also slowed. Numbers show that in January 2008, four permits for the construction of hotels/motels were issued, eight permits were issued for retail business and 11 were issued for banks and professional buildings. Those numbers were barely a blip this year -- no hotel/motel permits were issued, no retail business permits were issued and one bank or professional building permit was issued.

For permits to add, alter or repair projects, the numbers also took a tumble. Eighty-eight permits were issued for alterations to single-family residences, compared to 123 issued last year. One permit was issued to alter a townhouse, compared to 58 last year in January.

The total valuation of new construction permits issued in January was $31,130,379. Last January, that number topped out at $106,860,336. When those numbers are expanded to include permits to add, alter or repair, last month's total was $105,105,019 (compared to $161,389,585 last year).

There are 20 projects under construction in Clark County with a valuation of more than $1 million -- 15 of which are tied to CityCenter. Other projects include Tamara at the Venetian ($1 million); Sammy Hagar Bar at McCarran International Airport ($1,225,200); renovations to the 32nd floor of the Monte Carlo ($11,462,449); the Las Vegas Prostate Cancer Center ($1 million) and the Pool Café at Fontainbleu ($1,633,905).

Clark County has been hard hit by the economic slowdown and the fallout from the crippled housing industry. With the exception of MGM Mirage's massive CityCenter project, many construction projects have been put on the backburner as developers await an economic turnaround.

Last year, the Las Vegas area ranked second in the nation for its rate of foreclosures. UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research regularly gauges Southern Nevada's economy. In January, its Southern Nevada Index of Leading Economic Indicators showed a decline in 10 categories it monitors, with eight posting double-digit percentage drops compared with January 2008.