By PETER HUSSMANN
New construction remains at a near standstill in Newton with new residential construction seeing no activity for the seventh straight month and new non-residential construction showing just $450,000 in building value in the past year.
The bleak news on the city's building front was contained in the monthly construction report that tracks building permits and associated values.
For June, the city recorded just $190,000 in building permit values, largely coming from 10 remodeling projects with a value of $173,750. The remaining value came from the construction of garages and sheds. The monthly value is the second lowest recorded this year.
Year-to-date, Newton has recorded a total of roughly $3.5 million in building permit values, with $2 million of that relating to the construction of DMACC's Career Academy. A remodeling project at Park Centre accounts for another $527,000 in value with a partial value of $300,000 recorded for the Prairie Suites motel currently under construction.
New residential construction in Newton hit a high point in 2002 when values topped $14 million. The level dropped to just $1.3 million last year, but that was double the $678,000 recorded the year before.
New non-residential construction hit $23 million in 2006 with the construction of the Iowa Speedway and recorded another $15 million the following year. Last year that level fell to just over $3 million.
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