Denver planning agency approved $3.25 billion in construction in 2020
(The Center Square) — Denver’s Community Planning and Development (CPD) permitted over $3.25 billion in construction projects last year, the agency said this week.
By year’s end, the agency approved over 60,000 permits and conducted over 224,000 building inspections. Roughly 97% of the permits were submitted online, the highest total ever, according to CPD.
However, the number of permits were significantly down from 2019, decreasing by 16%. The valuation — labor plus material costs — of those permits dropped approximately 37%, according to CPD.
“In 2019, Denver saw a record high for permit numbers and valuation – which can be attributed to a few major development projects that were permitted that year. As a result, we expected to see a natural decrease in 2020, even before COVID became a reality,” Amanda Weston, communications specialist for CPD, told The Center Square.
According to Mortenson, a real estate development company, the cost of construction in Colorado is set to rise by 2% in 2021 as supply chains slowly recover from the pandemic. Supply chain disruptions have caused significant increases in price for PVC, steel, copper, lumber and glass.
Meanwhile, the cost of nonresidential construction in Denver remained flat year-over-year. Industry-wide labor shortages caused by the pandemic largely recovered by year’s end, according to the company’s fourth quarter Construction Cost Index report.
CPD is constantly seeing new project applications and beginning the development review and permitting process, Weston said.
A majority of Denver’s volume appears to be driven by intermediate-size commercial projects. Weston said the typical valuation is between $500,000 and $1 million.
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