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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The city may come up short in its bid to buy all the properties on the Gold Range strip with $6 million from its land fund - money accumulated from the sale of city real estate.

Pending purchases of the Cornermart and Instaloan properties at the east end of the strip have forced the city to go public with its plans to buy the entire strip.

With the city's plan in the open, prices on the remaining properties could rise significantly.

"Any time a buyer knows the city is interested, the price goes up," Mayor Gord Van Tighem said Monday at a special council meeting where council passed bylaws that enable the 50 Street land purchases.

The city has more than $1 million in its land fund and expects to add as much as $5 million this year from the sale of property, but that may not be enough now that the project is out in the open.

City councillor Lydia Bardak suggested at the Monday meeting that the city keep its purchases contiguous, and avoid "hop-scotching" that would leave some properties as islands in a redeveloped block.

A search of land title documents shows that over the last 20 years the current owners have paid well over $3.6 million for the Raven, Gold Range, Smart Bee, Cornermart, Instaloan and Diner properties.

The strip's bookend properties, the Raven Pub and Gold Range Hotel and Tavern, potential keys to any development project, together cost more than $1.575 million. How much more is not clear.

The Raven property, owned by Jim Sturge, was bought for $775,000 in 2002. The Gold Range was mortgaged for $800,000 in 2006, but last year was sold for $1 to a numbered company owned by Jung Yang Park.

Cornermart and its parking lot, properties that the city is close to purchasing, according to Van Tighem, were bought in 1991 and 1992 for $820,000. Land title records identify the owner as Yin Yuk Lau.

The Instaloan property at 5016 50th Street, another piece Van Tighem is confident can be bought, was last listed at $530,000. Its current owner is identified as numbered company 913050 NWT Ltd., with directors Russell Heslep and Wallace Finlayson.

The Smart Bee, belonging to Loc Huu Bui and Bang Thai Pham, according to land title records, was bought in 2006 for $265,000. The Diner, owned by Hoa Hieu Ngo and Zhao Xia Huang, commanded a price of $450,000 in 2001.

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