ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) -- Allen County has made history by surpassing the $3 billion mark in construction value in 2024. Thursday, the Allen County Building Department reported that construction building permits totaled $3,663,538,816 in 2024. Commercial permits issued in 2024 made up $2,834,962,181 of the $3.6 billion reported. Some big projects reported commercially include the Google Data Center, Water Furnace expansion, the new Arts United wing, The Lofts at Headwaters Park complex, and The Pearl luxury apartments. Residential construction made up $829,576,635, an $18 million boost from 2023. Allen County Building Commissioner Joe Hutter observed, “When you have a spike in commercial construction, we’ll see residential numbers go up a year or two later. You’ve got to expand existing businesses and build new ones first before seeing job opportunities grow. People will come here to work, then developers will meet the challenge of housing our labor force.” Hutter attributed most of the success of 2024 to several workflow and technology changes. On Jan. 1 the department debuted a software system, which allows contractors to renew their annual licenses. The software sorts dates by last name over the course of the year versus them all being filed in January. “We completed 67,000 building inspections in 2024, a little less than the 72,000 in 2023; however, while the permit number might have been down, the value of each job was up. Many of the permits that were pulled in 2024 were for multi-year projects and we’ll probably see up to 80,000 building inspections for this coming year," Hutter said.