CITY OF NEWBURGH — On his phone, Freddy Arias scrolled through pictures of 74 Benkard St.’s past: grey plywood filling window frames and the red “X” that tells first responders the building is considered unsafe.

From the street, he looked up at the house’s future: two workers on three-story high ladders brushing beige paint on a fresh layer of siding as part of a bottom-to-top renovation Arias is undertaking at the building, which he bought from the City of Newburgh.

He pointed to a house across the street that is slated for renovation. One block west a man dragged a trash can full of demolition debris out of 56 Benkard, which is also being rehabbed.

“I think it’s a great investment right now,” Arias said of the city.

Scaffolds, ladders, contractors' trucks and trash bins have flowered in Newburgh’s neighborhoods, as have the sounds of drilling, hammering and sawing, as recent buyers and longtime property owners undertake full rehabs and exterior and interior repairs.

While Newburgh officials have already documented a marked increase in the sales of city-owned properties, another statistic supports a rising interest: a surge in residential permits for rehabilitation and for electrical and plumbing work.

Rehab permits rose from 30 in 2015 to 293 last year. This year they are at 200, according to Assistant Fire Chief Bill Horton. Permits for electrical and plumbing work already exceed last year’s totals.

“There’s a tremendous interest in the City of Newburgh right now and there’s just a lot of work going on,” Horton said.

Part of the surge can be attributed to the Newburgh Community Land Bank’s collaboration with Habitat for Humanity and RUPCO, who are transforming Land Bank-owned properties into affordable single family homes and apartments in a section of the East End, north of Broadway.

But there is also activity by private owners like Arias.

Once nearly windowless and roofless, 2 Liberty St. was once listed among the properties Newburgh wanted demolished. But on Thursday, a power saw screeched and a generator whirred through windows where new wall framing was visible.

Electrical permits totaled 310, Horton said on Tuesday. Last year the number was 277 and in 2015 it was 200. Permits for plumbing work are at 293, up from 180 last year and 178 in 2015, he said.

Among the other projects, according to Horton: a half-dozen people are converting multifamily housing back into single family homes, and a property owner has submitted rehab plans for two houses on South Miller Street, where Habitat and RUPCO have also been working.

In addition to north-of-Broadway streets like Chambers, Lander and Johnston, the city’s Heights section is seeing a lot of rehab activity, Horton said.

“I know that several of them are following their friends here,” Horton said when asked about his conversations with recent buyers. “Several of them looked in Beacon and couldn’t get into Beacon, and now they’re in Newburgh.”

Joey Holdren ran a sander over a door on the porch of 4 Carson Ave. on Thursday morning. A man worked next door at 2 Carson, which Holdren also owns.

Holdren bought 4 Carson Ave. in 2009, when the structure was “falling down.” Foundation walls and the porch had to be replaced, he said.

“Now it seems there is a lot of vocal activity about it,” Holdren said. “You see on social media where people are talking about Newburgh.”

lsparks@th-record.com