Sunday, May 6, 2012

Williston Sets 3-Month Record for Permitting; Dickinson Permitting: Picking Up

Well, despite the best efforts to stop growth in Dickinson by faux environmentalists, permitting and growth is picking up significantly in that city.

The Dickinson Press is comparing apples to oranges in its lede:
Williston set a three-month record for building permit values from January to March with more than $33.55 million, but Dickinson beat them out with almost $36.11 million in March alone, according to code enforcement reports.
The big story: the Bakken boom has been going on since 2007 in North Dakota (it started earlier in Montana). I had thought by now Williston would have started to level off with regard to permitting, with regard to growth, so I almost missed the real headline in this story:
Williston Sets New Record For Permitting
Some data points:
  • Williston does not count permit fees for manufactured homes, and the three-month period showed it allowed 103 to be built.
  • Dickinson counts the values for the homes, which could make the totals higher than Williston.
Growth in Williston started in 2007.
  • 2010: $106 million, Williston
  • 2011: $358 million, Williston, a record
  • 2009: Dickinson started to see growth
  • 2011: $144 million, Dickinson, a record
  • March, 2012: $36 million, Dickinson
  • September, 2011: $41 million, Dickinson, the monthly record
That's an interesting statistic that the $33 million is a 3-month record and the yearly record is $358 million for Williston. I can't do the math. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Maybe they mean the January-March quarter set a record for that quarter, but it seems difficult to hit $358 million/year without any single quarter exceeding $33 million?

10 comments:

  1. I think Williston is in the early stages of a huge summer.
    There will be the permitting and ground breaking of the new 70million rec center this summer.
    Sand Creek Town Center broke ground and said they will have building and businesses operational this fall. And a couple out of state developers who are currently finishing up some projects are getting ready to announce some huge projects. From both Braxton out of Bozeman (600 units of mixed housing with club house) and Brutgers out of St. Cloud with an 800 unit apartment complex. Not to mention just so many other projects getting ready to permit and break ground. My bet is still on Williston out of all the ND towns for permit values.
    Below is the link to Brutgets new project:

    http://www.brutgerequities.com/residential/renaissance_heights/renaissance_heights.html

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    1. Great post, thank you.

      If Williston sets the permit record for North Dakota in 2012, wow -- -- after all the growth, it is still growing. This is truly spectacular.

      Williston is laid out very, very nicely. I think of Oilnot (Minot) recent actions to deny major operations in BHI's new complex. Minot has dropped a notch in my book. The jury is still out whether Minot will become another Dickinson.

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  2. FYI...just watching KFYR-TV out of Bismarck. They announced a groundbreaking for another huge development in Williston. It is called Chandler Field and will have over 1,200 housing units, office-retail and a hotel.

    I believe this is the 100 acre plot between the Fairground road and 42nd street east. Basically the old airport (I believe it was once Marburger aero spraying's private field off of 2&85). I missed the date of the groundbreaking, but am guessing it is soon since it was on KFYR. Maybe in it will be in the Williston Sunday Herald?

    I believe this is the Braxton development that was previously on the KUMV news, but must have upped the number of housing units by doubling the numbers!

    Gonna be a very busy summer in Williston!

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  3. Sorry Bruce, I previously posted a comment, but found out the correct information. I was able to catch the KFYR news clip on line on this evenings news (Saturday) the new major development called Chandler Field is WEST of Williston on 100 acres. It will have a mix of over 1,300 housing units, a hotel and some retail mix. It is WEST of the new Sand Creek Town Center that just broke ground last Thursday. It is being developed by North by Northwest Development. The groundbreaking will be this coming Tuesday at 10:30am (May 16th).

    But there is also a development by Braxton that will be developing the acreage between the Fairground Road and 42nd street. That was supposed to be a 600 unit mix with club house. They are the same developers the built the Microtel and Hampton Suite hotels.

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    1. Here it is...from the Minot paper.

      http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/565524/Local-Briefs.html?nav=5010
      May 11, 2012
      Minot Daily News

      Development in Williston to get under way

      WILLISTON - Ground will be broken Tuesday for a 100-acre development for retail, housing and a hotel in Williston.

      The developer, North by Northwest Development LLC, will unveil the future home of the site at Chandler Field, on the frontage of the main arterial of U.S. Highways 2 and 85.

      The site has been approved for 223,400 square feet of retail, 1,344 multifamily units and a 157-room hotel.

      Gov. Jack Dalrymple, David Gitlitz, North by Northwest developer, Ward Koeser, Williston mayor, and Tom Rolfstad, executive director of Williston Economic Development, will be among the participants in the event.

      Ground was broken Thursday for Sand Creek Town Center, also on the west side of Williston.

      Sand Creek will include a 14-screen movie theater and Menards. Other businesses are expected to be added to the facility.

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    2. This is truly incredible.

      Williston was fortunate to have been laid out the way it was. And it was quite incredible that developers sorted this out from the very beginning.

      I drove that area a thousand times and saw the old trail (one could not call it a road at that time) that linked the huge new development northwest of Williston to the west side of Sand Creek development to the huge industrial park west of Williston. It all seemed just too perfect.

      Building on the west side as "they" have done, accomplished two things: a) took the pressure off downtown and "old" Williston; and, b) built an entirely new city west of Williston where workers would live close to their industrial complex, which in turn was a straight shot to the heart of the Bakken, south to McKenzie County and west to Montana.

      Eventually I will get all this in a stand-alone post. Thank you for all the updates. This is really quite huge.

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    3. I am amazed by the number of housing units being built.

      Just with these recently announced groundbreakings, they are talking close to another 3,000 apartments alone. That is a lot of new people for the town the size of Williston.

      The new Chandler Field development, they are talking another 200,000+ of retail besides the retail in the Sand Creek Town Center? I wonder if they have lined up some national change stores yet? This will be very interesting.

      I hope the new 157 room hotel is another national chain. It is nice to see how many national chain hotels are coming into Williston.

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    4. I think "everyone" was surprised.

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    5. Here is a link to the ground breaking of Chandler Field.

      This development, along with the Sand Creek Town Center just to the east of this one, will be a great asset to Williston if the developers follow through with their plans.
      http://www.kxnet.com/story/18429434/williston-housing-project-groundbreaking

      http://www.willistonherald.com/news/breaking-ground-on-local-shopping-center/article_39819604-9b81-11e1-a5e7-0019bb2963f4.html

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    6. I will get the links posted later today.

      I wish folks could drive around this area, view this area of beautiful rolling "hills" (for lack of a better description), before the development begins, only to see the area that I hiked so many times growing up in Williston. It really is incredible beauty.

      Winters were incredibly harsh and the landscape often desolate, but I still have great memories of these rolling "hills."

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