Commercial building on the rise in Marlborough
By Kate Daly Contributing Writer

Marlborough - Commercial building is on the rise in Marlborough, more than making up for the reduction in residential development.

"This is a banner year," said Stephen J. Reid, city commissioner for inspectional services.

Reid made his determination based on the number of permits his office issues and the revenue they generate.

In calendar year 2007, commercial permits generated $933,000 in permit fees.

"That represents about $93 million worth of work," Reid said. "The west side of the city is really where most of the things are happening."

The work is not only new construction, but also additions, renovations and anything that requires a permit. A new tenant in a commercial building who reconfigures space requires a building permits, as does an owner putting an addition on an existing building, Reid said.

"At any one day, I can guarantee there's an active permit in all the buildings on the west side," he said. "There's always things going on. It could be on the roof or in the basement."

The increase in commercial permit income more than off sets a decline in residential permits, caused in part by the slowing real estate market, Reid said.

"The slowness in residential has been made up two-fold by commercial," he said. "Thonly other year that matched up to this one is 1995. That was the Solomon Pond Mall and a lot of other development."

He doesn't entirely blame the reduction in residential building permits on the real estate slowdown.

"The residential market has dropped off quite a bit. That's one factor. The second factor is all the residential lots are used," Reid said.

He added, though, that some lots remain available in new and existing developments, and some larger properties could be subdivided.

"The reason why those haven't been developed is that the [real estate] market is soft," he said.

The status of the residential market doesn't seem to aff ect the growing commercial market, something Reid attributed to the city's award-winning expedited permit system.

"It's an efficient process. We've established a nonpolitical administrative approach. We call it site plan review. It's not a voting board," he explained. "We have our rules clearly set out. If [the project] fits the rules, it fits the rules and we'll take you through the process."

The advantage to commercial and industrial developers is that they can know quickly whether their proposal will fly in Marlborough. In some communities, a company can go through a process for more than a year, and then learn they can't proceed.

"What we've tried to do here is become more business friendly," Reid said. "We're going to guarantee you're going to know in 180 days."

The process won the MassInsight Award for Excellence in local permitting in 2000 and has been recognized by Gov. Deval Patrick.