New owners to replace burned out Iqaluit apartment building

The new owners of an Iqaluit apartment building that burned to the ground this past March are planning to rebuild, this time with a bigger building that would include a beefed-up fire suppression system.

Northern Property REIT is in the process of taking over the Iqaluit holdings of Nova Builders, including the site where building 4100, destroyed by a fire that left dozens homeless, once stood.

The new building will be bigger —four stories instead of three, and contain 39 units instead of 29 — and that size causes new building regulations to kick in, said Arif Sayani, the city’s director of planning and development.

“It will have an elevator and it will have a full fire-suppression system,” Sayani told councillors during a May 31 meeting. Councillors approved an amendment to a development permit application for the project.

That fire suppression system includes sprinklers and fire-retardant insulation in the walls between apartment units that slows down the speed at which fire spreads.

Witnesses of the March 24 fire that destroyed 4100 said the building burned quickly, with residents scrambling to escape their homes in the middle of the night. The fire started beneath the building.

While authorities treated the fire as suspicious, so little of the building remained they were unable to pin down a cause or make any arrests in connection with the case.

Coun. Romeyn Stevenson said the destruction of 4100 offered the city the chance to replace a shoebox-shaped building he called “ugly.”

“Perhaps the only good thing to come from that fire is a chance to fix that,” he said.

The replacement for 4100 will be paired with a new, similar apartment building nearby, which will be home to 40 apartments. Sayani said the new buildings will be different, with a sloped roof, bigger windows and balconies.

In May, Northern Property engineered a $51-million sale of stock and income trust units to finance a series of property acquisitions in Nunavut, British Columbia and Alberta.

In Iqaluit, NPREIT took over several major holdings from Nova Builders of Edmonton, including the Nova Hotel, Navigator Inn, Qamutiq office building and several apartment buildings.