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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Both Mayor Gord Van Tighem and Yellowknife residential developer Les Rocher are confident the pending land swap before council benefits all parties involved - the city, GNWT and the developer himself.

According to public records, the Homes North owner stands to trade three downtown lots he bought for $642,000 for 118,459 square metres at the edge of Kam Lake - potentially worth more than $7.5 million, at $75,000 per serviced lot.

By comparison, the federal government paid $1.9 million in 2002 for the Greenstone Building land on Franklin Avenue. Rocher said there's a hefty expense for Homes North attached to the proposed deal that goes to a public hearing Aug. 8. The substantial costs of transforming a wedge of rock and forest into a subdivision of close to 100 manufactured homes and preparing his land on 49 Street now occupied by the former Pentecostal Church - for re-development must be considered, he said.

"Everything was appraised, and the government was satisfied that they achieved the right price," he said.

Rocher has been negotiating the deal since October 2009 and summed up its essence:

"I had something they wanted, they had something I wanted; everybody gets what they want," he said, but declined to disclose the results of the land appraisals.

"There is no big mystery here. Everybody has to be accountable. Talk to the city, talk to the government, they are the ones handling this transaction."

A statement e-mailed by the GNWT lands department Thursday afternoon said that a private sector real-estate appraisal found that 'the property exchange with Homes North is cost neutral to the GNWT,' but did not disclose the appraised values.

The downtown property is being considered as a location for a $6,000 square metre office building approved last fall, the statement read.

Van Tighem said the trade has additional benefits for Yellowknife, including an 11,000 square meter plot that the city stands to gain for its part in brokering the trade between the government and Rocher's Homes North.

The relatively small parcel of land is a bridge between the Multiplex and a ribbon of waterfront land on Kam Lake that will be reserved as natural land, with trails for hiking and winter sports.

"Instead of a church that doesn't pay taxes, the city gets an office building, more people working downtown, and at the other end of town, much needed housing, more tax revenue, more public recreation space, walking trails, maybe a boat launch," the mayor said.

The trade grew out of the developer's quest for land and the government's need for more office space, Van Tighem said.

In 2009, the city agreed verbally to pass on the land to Homes North.

To seal the deal, city council had to draft a new bylaw to circumvent a land administration bylaw passed in 2010 which requires that city land be appraised before it is sold for the highest price by bid, tender, or ballot processes. The new bylaw received second reading July 4.

"Mr. Rocher has been trying for years to get additional land to develop," Van Tighem The GNWT has requirement for additional office space, and being adjacent to an existing building is a benefit because they can link the computer systems."

The value of the land Rocher traded for "would be equivalent to what he had downtown," Van Tighem said.

The land the developer will get "is potentially worth much more, but potential doesn't work in a transaction."

Any advantage the Kam Lake tract might give Homes North will be offset by continued development of Niven Lake and other housing projects similar to one taking shape on School Draw Avenue, Van Tighem, said. "This just provides more options."

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