Johnny Bolton owns a building-framing company, but is without a single building to frame this spring and summer.
"I usually know of my projects in January," said Bolton, owner of Bolton Construction in Ketchum.
And he's usually backed up, often starting one job before the last is complete.
"At this point, there's nothing coming across my desk," he said.
Bolton isn't alone. The Wood River Valley's entire building industry is stuck at the side of the road, idling as they wait out the economic snowstorm, and hoping they've saved enough gas to keep warm until the clouds clear.
But the weather doesn't seem to be letting up in the Wood River Valley. It looks to be coming down even harder.
Not a single building permit has been filed in the cities of Ketchum, Sun Valley or Bellevue this year for new construction. Hailey has received just one application to build a new home. For Blaine County, 20 building permits have been requested for property outside city limits, but none of these are new construction either.
Marta Thompson, Ketchum Building Department assistant, said this is the time of the year when the filing of building permits "picks up" for spring and summer construction, but not much is happening in terms of new construction this year.
That's not to say construction isn't happening, but it's almost entirely remodels, additions and re-roofing, which also require building permits.
For 2010, Ketchum currently has 23 building permits, Sun Valley 15, Hailey 36 and Bellevue 10. Of these 84 projects, all are remodels and add-ons except one new house to be built in Hailey.
"These are do-it-yourselfers," said Bellevue Planning Director Craig Eckles. "New siding and re-roofing, new doors and windows."
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New construction drives spending
The money changing hands during these minor projects pales in comparison to new construction.
For example, new construction accounts for only 24 percent of Ketchum's construction projects on average, but make up for 79 percent of construction spending. These numbers were calculated by compiling Ketchum's building permit numbers from 1983 to 2009, and taking into account inflation.
During this 27-year span, Ketchum saw about $42.5 million of construction during an average year, coming through 153 projects. New construction accounted for $33.1 million of that $42.5 million, even though there were only 37 new-construction projects in an average year out of 153 total projects.
Simply put, new construction is where workers make the money. But not much is happening. At least, not yet.
Preston Ziegler, owner of Sawtooth Construction, said his company has no new construction projects lined up for the summer, but is better equipped to survive the storm because it's a general-contractor company. He can take on a variety of tasks for little projects. But those with one trade—painters, drywallers and framers—can't adapt as easily.
Still, Ziegler has been forced to "significantly" cut his number of employees. So has Bolton, who had about 90 workers four years ago. He's down to 12.
But there's only so much cutting Bolton and Ziegler can do before their companies start losing too much blood, and they know it. But there's not much they can do.
"Right now, I'm just holding my belt tight," Bolton said, "and waiting till the dust settles."
Bolton said that guessing when that will be is fruitless. So far, 2010 looks to be starting off at a pace worse than last year. And 2009 isn't a good barometer for looking at healthy construction levels. Bolton said 2009 was a "dud."
In 2009, Ketchum construction of any kind—new or remodels—totaled $20.2 million, half the average year looking all the way back to 1983. The last time a year produced equal to or less than that in construction was 1986, when $15.2 million was spent—in 2010 dollars.
And this year is starting off worse than 2009.
At this time last year, Ketchum had issued building permits for 18 projects worth a total of $8.6 million. To date this year, the number of building permits is higher at 23, but the total expenditures are estimated at $3.7 million, less than half of 2009's. This is mostly due to a lack of new-construction projects. Last year, three new-construction projects totaled $6.25 million.
Similar situation in south valley
This situation is repeated in the south end of the valley.
Figures for Hailey show that while the number of building permits for new homes has fallen, remodels have spiked.
From April to September 2008, the Hailey Building Department issued 24 new-construction permits and 80 remodel permits. During the same period in 2009, the number of building permits was one-third its 2008 rate—at seven—but remodels increased to 100. So far this year, 36 permits have been filed, with only one being for new construction.
Ketchum architect Michael Doty said the lack of new construction greatly hurts those in his profession because designers aren't always hired for remodels, which are the name of the game right now.
He said this year is the slowest he's seen in 23 years.
"The money that's there doesn't want to get involved," he said. "And the money that wants to get involved can't get a loan."
Doty said his phone rarely rings.
"And I don't know when I'm going to get the next phone call," he said, later adding, "I come to work every day and hope for the best."
What's even worse, he said, is that those in the building industry are dependent on the next job. There's no guaranteed paycheck every other week for him or his employees just because they show up for work.
And, Doty said, he's continuing to see a downward trend in business.
"Maybe that's good," he said. "It's coldest before it starts to get warm in the morning."
But can he and the others bear the bitter cold—and who knows when the mercury will stop falling before it rises?
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
Ben Petzinger, area manager of Okland Construction, describes the features of affordable-housing complex Northwood Place, one of the rare new-construction projects under way in the Wood River Valley. The apartments are located next to the Wood River Community YMCA in Ketchum. Photo by David N. Seelig
