YELLOWKNIFE - Construction has begun on a 60-room expansion at the Explorer Hotel by Clark Builders of Yellowknife.

"We are turning away people all the time," said hotel general manager Andre Lanz.

Site superintendent Pat Phillips, left, of Clark Builders and hotel general manager Andre Lanz stand outside of the Explorer Hotel where construction is underway on a 60-room expansion. - Stephanie McDonald/NNSL photo

"There's demand for more rooms," he said. The hotel currently has 127 rooms and nine conference rooms.

With more guestrooms in the hotel, the company will be able to attract bigger conventions, Lanz said.

Construction began two weeks ago after preliminary work was done on the outside wall of the building where the new section will be attached. Clark Builders had to wait for steel to arrive from Prince Edward Island before work could begin.

The steel had originally been ordered from a contractor in Edmonton, but the company was too busy to fill the order, and contracted the order to a company in P.E.I.

"Everyone's really busy in Alberta these days," said Pat Phillip, site superintendent with Clark Builders.

Six loads were driven up from the East Coast. Drywall will come from Edmonton, but the majority of supplies and workers will come from area contractors.

Phillips said he hopes the outside building package will be finished soon and that the building will be closed in by the fall.

There are 11 workers on site, and at the peak of construction there will be 30.

"It's a good sized job for Yellowknife, but not the biggest one we've had," Phillips said.

Clark Builders has also worked on Mildred Hall school, Sir John Franklin high school, and Centre Square Mall.

Construction is expected to be finished by February 2008, although individual floors will open when the operational infrastructure is in place. The third floor of the hotel should be ready by October, according to construction plans.

"We're excited about it, to be building new things and adding on," he said.

The hotel was built in 1974 with 117 rooms. In the 1990s, there was an expansion of 10 rooms on the second floor. It is on top of this section of the hotel that the expansion is occurring.

These 10 rooms are not being used.

More room attendants will be hired and Lanz expects that additional wait staff will be hired with increased business in the restaurant. A new laundry machine is going to be bought to cope with the additional laundry.

Lanz has seen a gradual increase in the number of visitors to the hotel since he arrived in Yellowknife in 2004.

He attributes the growing demand to increased economic activity in the region.