By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster saw a slight increase in its number of new homes built in January compared with the previous year, but has seen a slightly slower start in the commercial building and renovation sector.

The Alabaster Department of Building Safety recently released its permit numbers from the first month of 2016. The city just wrapped up its strongest housing and commercial building year in six years in 2015, and is looking for the trend to continue through 2016.

Last month, the department issued seven new home-building permits for projects valued at a total of $1.6 million, compared to six new home-building permits in January 2015 for projects valued at a total of about $1.4 million.

The city’s number of residential addition and remodel permits has also seen an increase over last year’s numbers.

Last month, the city issued 14 residential addition or remodel permits representing projects valued at a total of $217,722.40. The number was up from 10 home remodel or addition permits for projects valued at a total of $83,843.17 in January 2015.

However, the commercial market has seen a slower start compared with the previous year.

In January of this year, the Department of Building Safety issued no new commercial building permits. In January 2015, the department had seen two new commercial building permits representing projects valued at more than $1.2 million.

Likewise, the city has also seen a dip in its number of commercial additions or renovations so far this year. In January, the department issued six commercial renovation permits for projects valued at $25,200.40, compared with seven such permits representing projects valued at $606.396.03 in January 2015.