Iqaluit's Butler Building to be redeveloped into affordable housing

Iqaluit is set to have a new affordable housing option by the end of 2025. Last week, Iqaluit's non-profit Uquutaq Society announced it had won a tender from the city to take on the redevelopment of the Butler Building, in the downtown core.

28-unit rooming house could be complete by late 2025

Sarah Krymalowski · CBC News · Posted: Dec 05, 2022 3:39 PM EST | Last Updated: December 5, 2022

A white building with snow surrounding it. — Iqaluit's Butler Building is in the city's downtown core. The Uquutaq Society revealed plans last week to turn the building into a 28-unit rooming house, the first such housing in the city. (Emma Djwa/CBC)

Iqaluit is set to have a new affordable housing option by the end of 2025.

Last week, Iqaluit's non-profit Uquutaq Society announced it had won a tender from the city to take on the redevelopment of the Butler Building, in the downtown core.

The non-profit's plan is to turn the building, which is currently being used for storage, into a rooming house.

Laurel McCorriston, the executive director of the Uquutaq society, says that the non-profit couldn't be more happy with the announcement.

"We still get goosebumps when we talk about it."

The plan is for a rooming house with 28 individual rooms, each with an individual bathroom. The kitchen, laundry room and living space in the building will be shared.

The plan also includes covered parking spaces and an accessible indoor ramp.

Two women over look documents. — Laurel McCorriston, executive director of the Uquutaq Society, and the organization's transitional housing supervisor, Saimanaaq Pitseolak, look over the funding proposal for the project. (Emma Djwa/CBC)

"It's a kind of occupancy that we don't have in the city so we feel like we're filling a need by creating this," McCorriston said.

"We decided to develop it as a rooming house because there's a need for affordable housing that's smaller spaces."

Site needs asbestos remediation, oil cleanup

McCorriston said the units would be geared toward young people living away from home for the first time, people who have just moved to the city, and people exiting the shelter system who don't need additional support such as elders.

The building, which is currently being used for storage, contains asbestos.

As part of the tender, proponent's had to agree to take on the remediation of the building, and of the soil around it, which is polluted with oil.

To submit their proposal, the Uquutaq Society partnered with Ontario construction firm EllisDon.

Uquutaq is applying for funding under the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's rapid housing initiative to start the process of remediation and renovating the building.

According to the timeline the non-profit submitted to the city, it's hoped the newly renovated building will be finished by late 2025.

The non-profit's cost estimate for the project is around $23 million.

McCorriston said the non-profit does not yet know what rents will be for the completed units.