Blaine continues to boom this construction season.
In the first half of 2014, city officials issued 137 building permits for 153 residences, the most in Anoka County.
Those permits represent an estimated construction value of $44.3 million.
The number of housing permits could easily top 300 by year's end, according to the city's community development director, Bryan Schafer. Last year, 304 permits were issued for a total of 377 units.
In the past 18 months, the city has approved final plats for 618 lots, Schafer said. He anticipates that number will climb to 775 by year's end.
Most of the activity so far has been single-family homes in the northeastern part of the city. One exception is a 70-unit luxury townhouse development called Weston Woods on Rice Creek that will be built on the site of the former KateHaven Golf Course along Lexington Avenue. Schafer said work on a 191-unit market-rate apartment project will start later this summer just north of Cloverleaf and Hwy. 65
Blaine has grown quickly in the past decades, with the population eclipsing 60,000.
At the end of June, Blaine was third in the Twin Cities in total number of permits issued in 2014, according to the Builders Association of the Twin Cities. The top two cities were Lakeville, with 158, and Woodbury, with 153. Plymouth (135) and Maple Grove (87) round out the top five.
