Construction values in Kamloops cracked the $200-million mark last year — the fourth time in the past decade.

City development and engineering services director Marvin Kwiatkowski said Wednesday Telus’s data centre alone boosted the tally by $30 million. The total was $202.6 million, compared with $162 million the previous year.

Commercial, institutional and industrial construction lumped together were double that of last year, coming in at $115 million compared with $57 million in 2011, he said.

“That’s a pretty big gain,” said Kwiatkowski.

On the residential side, things were slower in 2012 than in 2011, with $78 million worth of homes built compared with $96 million the year before.

However, the number of single-family permits issued was almost the same, at 131 and 133, respectively.

Multi-family housing slowed down last year, but already Kwiatkowski knows of three projects in the hopper for 2013. Those three will create 209 housing units at a total value of $19 million.

Those aren’t the only projects on the construction horizon for 2013.

Kwiatkowski is expecting the Royal Inland Hospital expansion to come in at around $60 million, NorKam trades and technology program at $5 million and interior work on the Thompson Rivers University law building at $8 million. And that’s not all.

“Molycop just came in with an application for their expansion. And that one creates 35 more jobs. I don’t have a value for that one yet. They just brought the plans in,” he said.

“So I think we’re starting off quite well. It should be a fairly strong start.”