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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Traine Construction Ltd.'s story is a familiar one in Yellowknife. The company came North two years ago to rebuild fire-damaged apartments, looked around, liked what they saw, and settled in.

Matt Butler, president of Traine Construction Ltd., with Copper Sky, the company's first project in Yellowknife. - Jack Danylchuk/NNSL photo

'They' is Matt Butler, president of Fort Saskatchewan-based TCL, and his brother Scott, president of the Highstreet Group, which handles financing for building projects scattered across Western Canada, from Brandon, Man. to Courtney, B.C.

"I like it up here; I don't know if I'll move here right away, but I like the people up here," Matt said while on a break from shuttling between job sites – the almost complete Copper Sky condominiums below Tin Can Hill and new projects at Niven Lake.

"It's been a good experience, but I wish I could find more people to work."

Traine Construction typically recruits local trades and workers, but that has proven to be a challenge in Yellowknife's tight labour market.

"We have ads running steady and any people who put in resumes we try hiring them for as long as they show up, and then we try and hire more."

It was Yellowknife's tight housing market that drew Traine Construction to the city, and the Butlers now have first-hand experience with trying to find accommodations for the dozen workers they had to bring North. Their monthly rental bill is approaching $25,000.

"We originally came to town thinking we would build rental apartments, but there was such big demand for condominiums that we just decided to scrap the rental idea and go straight to selling condos."

All 34 units in the first phase of Copper Sky are sold and occupied; phase two has 48 units nearing completion. Work is starting in Niven Lake on the foundations for another more than 50 units with another 64-unit building to begin next year.

"Beyond that, we haven't determined what we're going to do; we'll worry about selling that out first then think about buying more land," he said.

The city is looking for a developer to take on the 50 Street re-development, but TCL is also busy with housing and commercial projects on the go in British Columbia's Dawson Creek and Courtenay and Alberta's St. Albert, and south Edmonton.

"We'd look at anything, but typically, we just do our own projects," said Matt. "We don't build for other people, just ourselves."

Scott Butler said the 50 Street project has been discussed with the city, "but they've probably put it in front of other developers as well. It looks interesting but we need details. All the discussions so far have been informal."

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