Edmond Economic Preview is positive, as commercial building permits break records

Puxatony Phil may be forecasting 6 more weeks of winter, but there’s Sunshine forecast for Edmond’s Economy in 2012!!!

Edmond’s economic situation for 2012 is positive, city leaders learned Tuesday during the annual Edmond Economic Preview. New commercial building permits broke records in 2011.

Taken directly from NewsOK.com

EDMOND — The dollar amount of new commercial building permits in 2011 was higher than any other year in the history of Edmond, city leaders learned Tuesday at the 2012 Edmond Economic Preview.

Article Gallery: Edmond Economic Preview is positive, as commercial building permits break records

The record set in 2010 was beat last year by $36 million, said Janet Yowell, Edmond Economic Development Authority executive director.

New commercial building permits grew by 55.98 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year.

The 26 permits totaled more than $102 million. The city also issued another 13 permits for more than $2.2 million in additions and alterations to existing businesses.

“That is incredible,” Yowell said. “2011 was very positive for Edmond.”

Eleven new restaurants opened last year — not counting yogurt places, Yowell said. Ten of the restaurants opened in existing buildings.

Private investors spent $1.7 million in downtown to renovate buildings for new businesses.

The center of new construction in Edmond is along Interstate 35, where medical facilities, offices and commercial business are planned.

Edmond issued $55.5 million in permits for 212,000 square feet of new medical facilities. In additions and renovations, there was another $5.6 million.

OU Medical Center Edmond at Second Street and Bryant Avenue was issued a $3.6 million permit during the construction of its birthing center. Integris Health Edmond, north of 15th Street and I-35, had just less than $2 million in additions to its medical office building.

Mercy Health System is building an $88 million medical complex and wellness center at 15th Street and I-35. The building is on a 27-acre site on the southwest corner of the intersection.

I-35 and 15th Street will be the home of the Fox Lake Plaza retail and office project, and more retail, office building and hotel plans are under way for I-35 and Covell Road.

A March groundbreaking is expected at I-35 and Covell for a Francis Tuttle Technology Center site. The training and business development center will be built in the Cross Timbers Office Park on the northeast corner of the intersection.

The first building at Fox Lake Plaza is a 30,000-square-foot mixed-use building, with about 200,000 square feet available for future projects.

“The exciting thing that is happening is the city is working with the developer to build a trailhead that would go under Interstate 35 and all the way out to Arcadia Lake,” Yowell said. “So, for bicycle enthusiasts and joggers, that is a great amenity. The developer thinks it is also.”