Housing NWT to move clients in privately leased suites to Aspen Apartments

“Renovating Aspen doesn’t resolve every need, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction.”
– Yellowknife Mayor Ben Hendriksen

Modernization work at the former federally owned Aspen Apartments in downtown Yellowknife has been completed by Housing NWT.

The 36-unit building on 51st Street south of 52nd Avenue is intended to improve the quality of social housing and to help ease pressure on Yellowknife’s rental market.

With the building now ready for occupancy — maybe by Christmas — Housing NWT will allocate the 30 one-bedroom units and six two-bedroom units to social housing tenants.

While the 30 one-bedroom units and six two-bedroom units will add to the city’s housing stock overall, it won’t mean more public housing units, as Aspen residents will be moved from privately leased blocks owned by companies such as Northview Apartment REIT.

“This building will now be directly managed by housing Northwest Territories as part of our social housing portfolio,” said Housing Minister Lucy Kuptana. “Tenants currently living in the units leased in private market will be moving into these 36 units, helping ease the pressure on Yellowknife’s housing market and ultimately increasing housing availability for all residents.”

Kuptana said upgrades to the late-‘70s era building will increase the service life for 25 years.

Upgrades include a renewed life safety system, improved ventilation for better indoor air quality and energy efficiency, an integrated security system to enhance resident safety, and a new biomass heating system expected to offset 80% of the building’s previous fuel oil use.

Yellowknife Mayor Ben Hendriksen said the new block could be the foundation many people have been waiting for.

“Stability can be life changing — a home gives people the chance to rest and recover, to focus on health, support their families and plan for the future,” he said. “Renovating Aspen doesn’t resolve every need, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction.

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“The project also strengthens the city’s ongoing work to revitalize our downtown core by bringing more homes into the heart of Yellowknife. We add stability, activity and a stronger sense of community in our city.”

In 2019, then-Mayor Rebecca Alty advocated for the federal government to make the property surplus and convert it into non-market housing.

In the summer of 2023, approximately $7.9 million in federal funds were earmarked to convert the empty block.

In the summer of 2024, a large homeless encampment situated itself in a parking lot for the building, with GNWT officials concerned it could delay work commencing on the building.

Minister Kuptana said there are some 300 families currently waiting for public housing.

She noted the ongoing construction of a 50-unit public housing complex on 50th Street and 51st Avenue which should be complete in one year.

Daniel Korver, Director of Infrastructure Services with Housing NWT, said the 50-year-old block was assessed right down to the to the level of the plumbing, “just to make sure that we would get, 25 years at least, out of a building like this.”

He said the federal government, “did a great job maintaining this building ¬— it did have strong bones.”

The Yellowknife Housing Authority will determine who will move into the Aspen Apartments from their Northview-leased suites.

But that doesn’t mean the GNWT and the Calgary-based Northview are ending their residential leasing arrangements, as there will still be some larger families waiting for spaces with more than two-bedrooms.

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Upgrades include:

• Life safety systems (fire alarms and sprinklers).
• Improved ventilation for better indoor air quality and efficiency.
• Increased operational efficiency.
• Integrated security system to enhance resident safety.
• A new biomass heating system expected to offset 80% of the building’s previous fuel oil use.

  

  Media and political representatives were toured through the former federally owned Aspen Apartments in downtown Yellowknife, which has been acquired and modernized by Housing NWT. (James O’Connor/CKLB)