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Yellowknife's Bellanca Building could be torn down: property manager

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Powerful winds stripped steel siding from the Bellanca Building around 7 a.m., Wednesday morning. Large portions of paneling crashed to the parking lot below. No one was injured, but motorists often park there during the workday. Aug. 22, 2018.

Owners of Yellowknife’s beleaguered Bellanca Building are in talks to tear down the 10-storey structure, the property manager tells Yellowknifer.

“We’re looking at the cost (of demolition),” said McCOR property manager Darin Benoit Monday.

The building, located on 50 Street and erected in 1973, has sat vacant since 2012 -- meaning the building is losing money annually.

“The building is costing us probably about $350,000 a year in operating and taxes,” Benoit told Yellowknifer.

In August, high winds stripped siding from the building, which fell to the ground below in a crumpled heap of steel.

But talks on the future of the building -- whether to leave it standing or not -- began well before last summer’s incident, said Benoit.

If the decision is made to tear the building down, it would have to be done floor by floor - an expensive process, he said.

Given the 60,000-square-foot Bellanca’s close proximity to other buildings in the area -- such as offices, a restaurant and a clothing store -- Benoit said the undertaking would have to be done with “precision.”

He estimates the potential tear-down would take three to four months to complete.

Ultimately, said Benoit, the decision is up to the building’s owner, Toronto-based KingSett Capital. The company, which owns several other buildings in downtown Yellowknife, took ownership of the Bellanca in 2017.

Benoit couldn't given an estimate as to when the decision will be made, telling Yellowknifer it's up to the owners.