Det’on Cho Corporation, the economic development arm of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, has finalized its purchase of the Nunasi Building on 48 St. on Nov. 30.
John Henderson, president and CEO for Det’on Cho Management LP, said that the building is long-term investment for the company, one they intend to hold onto indefinitely.
“We have investments in a lot of areas and we do have some commercial buildings now but the majority of them are for use for our own purposes,” he said. “We have warehousing, passenger lounges at the airport, for example. Most of them are part of the core operation business whereas this property is dedicated as an investment property.”
Henderson also said that the company believed it was necessary to diversify its investments.
“It was up for sale, so we’ve seen it as a way to diversify our holdings into something that’s not necessarily an operational business,” he said.
Henderson declined to share the cost of the building, but said that they have been working to acquire the property since July.
The building is a commercial space, home to nearly a dozen businesses such as Polar Vision and Top of the World Travel.
The contracts between the pre-existing tenets were maintained through the ownership transfer, Henderson said.
Tenents currently occupy all available spaces in the Nunasi building, though the basement isn’t being used for anything.
Henderson gave some indication as to what they might do with the space.
“We will probably will utilize the basement office space for our own purposes, to do some job specific training,” he said.
He said that the basement was previously being used for storage, and they don’t intend to make that space available for rent to the public.
“It’s used as storage right now and it hasn’t been marketed. It has been in the past — there have been offices there,” he said. “There’s potential for some shared office space for some of the companies that we deal with on a regular basis. We’re not going to market it as an additional office space to the general public.”