Yellowknife (May 05/04) - A hotel one month, an apartment block the next.

Nova Builders' Mike Mrdjenovich ventured to City Hall, Monday, in hopes of convincing city council to let him turn his hotel on Old Airport Road into an apartment complex instead.

Nova Builders' president Mike Mrdjenovich went to City Hall, Monday, hoping to convince council to re-zone his property on Old Airport Road so he can build an apartment instead of a hotel. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

The property next door to Stanton Territorial Hospital generated some controversy earlier this year.

First it was appealed, and then a city councillor and landscape architect complained that Nova Builders wasn't following the city's zoning bylaw after blasting rocks and bulldozing over trees.

Mrdjenovich told council that after taking a second look at the number of hotels in the city, apartments would be a better option.

"We found there's no need for that kind of facility there," said Mrdjenovich.

"It's a good location and the hospital doesn't want any high traffic there."

Council didn't tell Mrdjenovich no, but he will likely be waiting six weeks or more before they come to a decision.

The property is listed as commercial-use only in the zoning bylaw, and will require a public hearing and a council vote before it can be re-zoned for residential use.

They also want the long-time Northern developer to commission a traffic study on the intersection at Old Airport Road. He will also need a new development permit.

Tasha Stephenson, the Yellowknife resident who appealed Nova's development permit in February, said she may do so again.

She said she suspected Mrdjenovich wanted to build an apartment there all along but didn't have the right zoning.

Now that the site has been sold, blasted and cleared to make way for a hotel, Stephenson thinks he may be trying to strong-arm the city to get his way.

A development permit for an 81-room hotel and commercial medical centre was issued by the city, Jan. 26.

Less then two months later, on March 18, Mrdjenovich applied to have the zoning bylaw amended to change the project to a multi-family dwelling.

"It's destroyed now anyway so what are they going to do? Of course, they're going to re-zone it."

Mrdjenovich said he changed his mind after talking to other hotel owners who told him there were already too many hotels in Yellowknife.

"They were saying, 'what the hell are you doing,'" said Mrdjenovich.

"I can see just as much money in building an apartment than a hotel."

He said it's the city, not him, who is holding all the cards.

"I don't think I'll be able to do any work until they approve it," said Mrdjenovich "They want this, they want that, they want my last-born."