Monthly Update: Building Permits

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City of Houston building permits totaled $7.2 billion in the 12 months ending June ’19, up 20.2 percent from $6.0 billion for the comparable period in ’18, according to the latest data released by the city’s Public Works Department. Commercial permit values jumped 34.6 percent to $4.3 billion; residential permit values increased 3.6 percent to $2.9 billion. 

The value of building permits in June this year fell well below the level of last year, decreasing 38.7 percent from $632.7 million in ’18 to $387.9 million this year. Commercial permit values slipped 21.6 percent to $259.2 million while residential permit values plummeted 57.4 percent to $128.7 million. Despite this June's lower building permit values, year-to-date building permits for Houston are up 37.2 percent from the same period last year; 71.9 percent for commercial permits and 2.2 percent for residential permits. 

Three projects of note that were permitted in June:

• St. Martin’s Episcopal Expansion ($44.2 million permit value), part of the church’s $55 million expansion and renovation of its campus in Tanglewood. Houston-based Tellepsen Builders will lead the construction, which includes remodeling and expanding the chapel and the chapel music building as well as upgrading the educational facilities. Work on the project began on July 8.
• Houston Spaceport ($17.2 million permit value), an infrastructure project at Ellington Airport, which includes streets, water, wastewater, electrical power and distribution, fiber optics and communications facilities. Texas Sterling-Banicki, a joint venture of Houston-based Texas Sterling Construction and Phoenix-based Banicki Construction, is developing the infrastructure. The project broke ground on June 28.
• McDermott's New HQ ($9.8 million), a 28,302-square-foot buildout project at McDermott’s new HQ location. The company is consolidating some of its Houston footprint into a single location by the end of ’19. Houston-based Harvey Builders is responsible for the buildout.

Melissa Verhoef, PhD
Analyst, Research
713-844-3653
mverhoef@houston.org

Patrick Jankowski, CERP
Senior Vice President, Research
713-844-3616
pjankowski@houston.org