Construction in '80 Climbs Out of Slump

              WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 31. 1980 Shreveport Metro 3A
Construction in '80 Climbs Out of Slump
By BILL HENSEL Jr.
Journal Staff Writer
Total dollars spent for construc-tion
in Shreveport during 1980 far
surpassed 1979 construction thanks
to an eleventh-hour $21 million build-ing
permit for a medical tower here.
The 1980 building permit valuation
figures — which ran behind 1979
figures most of the year — totaled
some $132 million this year, up about
$12.5 million over 1979 figures.
The statistics were released by the
city's department of permits and
inspections today.
Commercial construction ac-counted
for $20 million more this
year in valuations than was the case
in 1979, while residential construc-tion
actually declined by about $8
million.
And although construction
projects classified as "single-family
dwellings" declined by some $6.4
million in 1980 compared to the prior
year, the number of townhouses and
patio homes built this year more
than doubled.
The valuation of permits for sin-gle-
family dwellings fell from $27.7
million to $21.3 million between 1979
(when 647 such homes were built)
and 1980 (when 594 single family
houses were constructed), but the
worth of permits for townhouse and
patio homes climbed from $2 million
in 1979 to $4.3 million this year.
The number of townhouses and
patio homes built this year totaled
140, compared to 63 in 1979.
On the residential side, additions
to homes were up slightly from a
valuation standpoint (from $5.2 mil-lion
to $5.5 million), but repairs to
homes were down substantially —
from $11.1 million to $7.8 million.
Commercially, the monetary
worth of additions to buildings fell
sharply, from $15.6 million to $5.3
million, but the number of additions
increased slightly from 139 permits
taken out in 1979 to to 142 permits
taken out in 1980.
The number of commercial re-pairs
remained basically the same
between 1979 and 1980.
The largest single commercial
project during 1980 — from a con-struction
permit value standpoint —
was the permit for the medical tower
Type of Construction
TOTAL Commercial 1980
TOTAL Commercial 1979
Offices 1980
Medical Tower 1980
Schools and Classrooms 1980
TOTAL Residential 1980
TOTAL Residential 1979
Single Family 1980
Single Family 1979
Townhouses, Patio Homes 1980
Townhouses, Patio Homes 1979
Number of Permits
1,701
1,647
28
1
7
5.102
8,309
594
647
140
63
Value of Permits
$78.8 million
$58 million
$22.3 million
$21.1 million
$5.1 million
$43.8 million
$51& million
$21.3 million
$27.7 million
$4.3 million
$2 million
at LSU Medical Center, which was
taken out Nov. 3. Office construction
accounted for $22.3 million in per-mits.
B.P. Burnett, head of the city's
department of buildings and inspec-tions,
is on vacation and could not be
reached for comment this morning.