Commercial development permits carried the lion's share of property development in Swift Current last year.

According to the City of Swift Current, they gave the green light to $15 million in development, with $11.5 million of that coming on the commercial side.

"We've seen some good commercial development," Marty Salberg, the director of community development with the City of Swift Current, said. "Some of the permits that were issued, actual construction won't happen until this year."

That dollar figure is up from the $14 million approved by the City in 2020 and well above 2019 according to Salberg.

Residential development permits accounted for roughly $3.5 million, with most of that being home improvement projects.

"A lot of the residential development building permit-wise is renovations, additions, new garages, and decks," he said. "Historically we had a number of years we had multi-family units built, not so much in the last three years but we have some land zoned appropriately for that."

Salberg attributed the residential slide recently to the COVID-19 pandemic and lumber prices reaching all-time highs but he's expecting that to change in 2022.

"I do believe moving forward into this year we will see more new housing starts," he said. "I think we're going to see more industrial development and obviously the more commercial development we see, activity breeds activity, so around that area behind the casino area we're going to see more development there."