The City of Thunder Bay is seeing a construction boom, with building permit numbers far surpassing those at the same time last year.
Halfway through the year, the numbers from the second quarter to the end of June show the total building permit construction value at $146.4 million.
Joel DePeuter, the city’s director of development services, said the exciting part is that within those building permits, the projects that would result in new property assessment, or property tax growth, are 2.3 times the point that they were at last year.
“All the taxable sectors—residential, commercial, and industrial—they’re all 2.2 to 2.5 times where we were over the previous year,” he said, adding that’s well above the development growth and volume that Thunder Bay has seen in recent years.
DePeuter illustrated the significance of these numbers and compared this year’s construction with that of 2025.
“Last year at the end of June, the total construction value was a bit higher at $163.7 million. However, within that was a $100-million hospital project that would have significantly boosted the numbers for the entire year,” he said.
“If we take out the hospital, we’d have $64 million for last year versus $146 million this year where there are no huge institutional developments. So, Thunder Bay is looking pretty good.”
Among the highest value permits driving the number up are two hotels.
“We have the 120-unit six-storey hotel on Oliver Road, and there’s another hotel in front of the Valhalla, and those are in the $25- to $30-million range,” he said. “That new Jasper Drive apartment building with 80 units is $25 million.”
Other high-value construction projects include:
- Mixed-use 82-unit renovation on Court Street with a construction value of $14 million.
- Three-storey 24-unit apartment on Royston Court, $8.1-million construction value.
- Two, six-unit apartments on High Street, $4.8-million construction value.
- Three-storey, 19-unit apartment on Archibald Street, $4-million construction value.
- Renovation to Superstore on Carrick Street, $3.2-million construction value.
- Renovation to the interior of Thunder Bay Airport, $2.7-million construction value.
“This year housing numbers are great,” DePeuter said. “We’re at 2.5 times where we were last year, which was an extremely busy year. Each year we’re exceeding the previous year considerably.”
DePeuter compared numbers and noted that midway through this year the city is at 300 units. He pointed out that at the end of 2025 the city was at 377 units, and it is almost at the same number at the mid-point through 2026.
