By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Through the end of June, Alabaster had seen a significant increase in its number of new homes, new commercial buildings and building renovations compared to the same time period last year.

At the halfway point of the year, the city’s Department of Building Safety had issued 46 new home building permits, which was up from 36 during the same time period the previous year.

The 46 new home permits issued from January-June this year were for structures valued at more than $12.2 million, which was up from a little more than $8 million during the first half of 2014.

Alabaster has already seen more housing starts in the city this year than it had at the end of the year in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

“We’ve seen just over a 25-percent increase in new home starts over the last year,” said Ward 2 Councilman Bob Hicks. “So a little bit at a time, we are coming back.”

Alabaster also continued to see an increase in its number of new commercial buildings compared to last year, as the first six months of 2015 brought eight new commercial building permits for structures valued at $12.6 million.

In comparison, the city had issued three new commercial building permits during the same time period in 2014 valued at a little more than $3 million.

The number of new commercial buildings so far this year has already eclipsed year-end numbers from 2010 and 2011.

For existing structures in the city, the Department of Building Safety has also seen a spike in the number of commercial and residential remodeling permits.

Through the end of June, the department had issued a total of 128 residential remodeling permits for projects valued at $1.2 million, compared to 51 residential renovation projects valued at $824,030 through the first six months of 2014.

In the commercial renovation sector, Alabaster had issued 43 renovation permits for projects valued at more than $3 million, compared to 13 permits for projects valued at about $2.7 million during the first half of 2014.