Lakeville, Savage among homebuilding leaders

Lakeville and Savage rank among the Twin Cities leaders in residential building activity in 2014, a year that generally has been disappointing for homebuilding in the metro area.

Lakeville led the metro with 298 building permits issued through November and 37 during that month.

Savage was third in the number of housing units permitted this year with 477 through November, according to the Builders Association of the Twin Cities.

Lakeville likely will stay among the leaders next year, said David Olson, the city's community and economic development director.

"If everything else stays the same, I would think Lakeville is certainly going to remain in the top five for permits" in 2015, Olson said.

He's projecting that the city will issue 300 single-family housing permits and 20 to 25 townhouse permits next year, both similar totals to 2014.

Lakeville had more than 670 lots available in October and 400 more awaiting final approval, Olson said. The city's location on the Interstate 35 corridor and its well-regarded schools are among its selling points.

In Savage, the number of housing units spiked this year as the city issued permits for a 288-unit apartment development and for a 100-unit senior housing project, planning manager Bryan Tucker said.

"We don't see any other multifamily housing coming in until these two are done and occupied," Tucker said. He's expecting the city will issue up to 125 single-family home permits next year, based on subdivisions likely to see activity in the spring.

"We still have some available land in Savage that's got some nice amenities," including open space, a park, trails and schools in the southern part of the city, Tucker said. "I think the builders continue to have an interest in the community."

Savage and Lakeville both have seen fewer single-family homes permitted this year than in 2013. Overall, the 4,559 residential housing permits that cities in the 13-county metro area had issued through November were down nearly 400 through the same period in 2013, according to the builders association.

Both south-metro cities, however, continue to rebound from the depths of the housing market bust, with Lakeville and Savage both issuing two or three times the number of housing permits they did in 2009 or 2010.

The city averaged close to 750 housing permits a year during the housing boom, Community Development Director Michael Leek said, and issued nearly 1,100 permits in 2003.

"Actual single-family residential activity has been fairly slow, somewhere between 80 and 100 units a year for the last few years," Leek said.

Shakopee has had only about 90 single-family lots available a year in recent years, although those have sold relatively quickly, Leek said.

Construction of a third building in an apartment project will provide a Shakopee a boost, adding 88 multifamily units this year.

Besides taking a hit in the housing crash, Shakopee also faces a constraint on land available for building, Leek said, because the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community owns or controls nearly 500 acres within the city that won't see conventional residential development.

Some 320 acres on Shakopee's west side have the potential for significant residential development, Leek said. Another 80-acre parcel is available for residential development along Hwy. 169 on the west side of County Road 83.