Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 22/01) - Yellowknife's apartment crisis deepened a little last week, after 24 units were flattened.

Dave Carl Rossignol of Ace Enterprises mops up the remains of Mackenzie House, a 24-unit apartment. - Sullivan/NNSL Photo

With today's building code, it was cheaper to tear down the 37-year-old Mackenzie House than to renovate it.

The owners said it's not likely another apartment building will go up on the prime, double-size downtown lot.

Yellowknife Developments will sit on the vacant property, behind Northern Images gallery, for a year.

For now it will become a parking lot.

Mackenzie House will likely be replaced by an office building, said Dave McCann, part-owner of the development company.

"A few people have asked (for an apartment) because of the outcry," he said.

But the downtown location, combined with a scaling back of the company's apartment holdings, mean there is more momentum behind a retail and office idea, he said.

The apartment building was one of the city's first, built by Yellowknife Developments founder Norman Byrne in 1964.