Lease fight threatens Nunavut college’s plan for Hotel Arctic

Nunavut Arctic College wants to use the Hotel Arctic to run its new law program, along with other college programs. They also want to use the building as a student residence to replace Ukkivik. But a continuing squabble over the status of the Waters Edge restaurant and Kickin’ Caribou pub is threatening those plans, the NAC said in sworn affidavits. (FILE PHOTO)

When Inuit-owned Qikiqtaaluk Properties bought Iqaluit’s now-closed Hotel Arctic last month, their goal was to lease the building to Nunavut Arctic College for use as a student residence, with classroom space and a student cafeteria, newly filed court affidavits confirm.

But an ongoing squabble with the Waters’ Edge Steak and Seafood restaurant, which operated under an arrangement with the previous owner, threatens construction deadlines.

And it could “irremediably compromise” the Inuit birthright subsidiary’s yet-to-be-signed agreement with NAC, which would allow the college to operate in the building, Qikiqtaaluk Properties said in court documents filed Aug. 18.

Qikiqtaaluk Properties is a subsidiary of Qikiqtaaluk Corp., the Inuit-owned birthright firm for the Qikiqtani region.

A judge granted the Waters’ Edge restaurant a temporary stay on Aug. 10 that allows the business to continue operating until the end of September, as part of an ongoing appeal against a court decision that found their lease expired Aug. 30.

Sisters Kim and Donna Waters, owners of the restaurant and its adjacent Kickin’ Caribou Pub, say their lease with the hotel’s former owner, Northview Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust, allows them to continue operating in the hotel until 2023.

Qikiqtaaluk Properties bought the hotel from Northview at the end of July for $14.9 million, on the condition that the restaurant would vacate the hotel before the NAC school year starts on Sept. 5.

“I do verily believe that NAC is very concerned with the possibility of not having enough programming space to meet their obligations to their students and the negative impact on those students if [Qikiqtaaluk Properties] is unable to provide the full programming,” the Qikiqtaaluk Corp.’s director of project development and partnerships, Sheldon Nimchuk, said in an affidavit.

“Leases have yet to be signed,” Nimchuk added, and said the Government of Nunavut could “at any time” deem Qikiqtaaluk Properties to be non-responsive in a pair of awarded contracts to provide space to the college.

Nimchuk added that Qikiqtaaluk Properties “fully anticipates” that its lease with NAC for student residences at the building will be “finalized shortly.”

In another affidavit, NAC President Joe Kunuk said construction delays would hurt the operation of the college’s new law school, which was expected to operate within the Hotel Arctic building, as well as other programs.

“At this late date, it will be impossible for NAC to obtain sufficient classroom, office and cafeteria space for its full roster of 2017-18 programs,” Kunuk said.

He explained that the NAC is already short of space because of the closure of the Ukkivik student residence and the continuing expansion and renovation work at the college’s Nunatta Campus in Iqaluit.

“Existing non-law programs scheduled to begin at Nunatta Campus may have to be cancelled to free up additional classroom space for the law program,” Kunuk said.

The cancellation of programs on short notice could have dire consequences for many students expecting to start classes in a few short weeks.

Those students may have left jobs or are travelling to Iqaluit from elsewhere in the territory, Kunuk said in his affidavit.

Construction in the hotel has already started, Nimchuk said in his affidavit, with builders working around the restaurant, which has been contained within an untouched wing of the hotel’s main floor.

Rooms on the hotel’s upper level are being modified into bachelor, one-bedroom and two-bedroom suites, with classroom and office space planned for the main level, as well an in-house cafeteria for students.

The area occupied by the restaurant was to be repurposed into a classroom, meeting room and cafeteria.

Kunuk said the continued operation of a bar on an NAC campus would be a violation of college policies against possessing or consuming alcohol.

“The presence of potentially inebriated people who are neither students nor staff of NAC, in close proximity to the sleeping and living quarters of students, would, in my opinion, expose students to the risk of harm, and expose NAC to liability,” Kunuk said.

Students travelling from communities prohibiting alcohol would have little experience dealing with a bar inside their residence, Kunuk added.

“Housing these students in proximity to a licensed establishment such as the Waters’ Edge could lead to the perception… that [NAC] is facilitating and endorsing alcohol consumption by its students.”

The restaurant is scheduled to present their full appeal before a judge on Sept. 19, with an expedited decision on the matter expected to be delivered soon after.