SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The future of Shaganappy and Ptarmigan apartments is uncertain as they sit on the proposed 2010 tax auction list.

Their owner, Bond Street Properties, has not yet paid a combined $126,799.51 in property taxes from 2008.

Bond Street offered no comment when Yellowknifer contacted its office in Edmonton last week.

Carl Bird, director of corporate services for the City of Yellowknife, said to his knowledge the city has not yet heard from the company on this issue.

"I would have been made aware of it," said Bird.

He said if the city was contacted, it could have possibly worked out some sort of payment plan.

Bird was not sure of the fate of leaseholders residing in the two apartment complexes if the properties were bid on and bought in the auction. He said the issue would fall into the hands of the legal system at that point.

The auction list has yet to be officially adopted. City council has the ability to pick and choose which properties are auctioned off. The list was put forward to council at the Feb. 8 Priorities, Policies, and Budget Committee meeting in the form of a memorandum. On Feb. 22 council will vote on the approval of the list.

Once properties are officially put up for auction, however, there's still one last chance for the owners to reclaim them.

"If it gets sold you can still pay it. There's a recall period in there (of 30 days)," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem at the Feb. 8 committee meeting.

At the same meeting, city councillor Lydia Bardak asked what the track record was for properties actually being sold at tax auctions in the last ten years.

"We've auctioned off five and they all got paid (by the original owners) within 30 days," said Bird, who was also at the meeting.

This is not the first time Bond Street has made news for financial difficulties. Last year, the company was pursued by B.C.-based bank Fisgard Capital Corporation over repayment on monies to do with the troubled Bayview Estates.

Fisgard served Bond Street a court notice demanding repayment of $3 million, plus interest, loaned to Bond Street for the mortgage on the Niven Lake-area properties.

Bond Street was trying to find financing to finish developing townhouses on the properties, which had been sitting in limbo, half-built, for about two years. The properties were finally sold to Nova Builders in December for an undisclosed amount, though they were listed on Coldwell Banker's website for $5.6 million.