Bromleys look to sell five YK buildings valued at $7.6M

The Bromley family has placed five office buildings and three downtown parking lots in Yellowknife on the market, valuing them at $7,615,000.

Buildings listed include the WH Bromley and Graham Bromley buildings, the 50-50 Mini Mall, the former day shelter, and the former Harley’s building.

Tenants of the buildings were understood not to have received formal notice from their landlord, Bromley & Sons Ltd, of the intention to sell. However, tenants who inquired (Cabin Radio among them) were told there would be no immediate change.

The properties – most built in the late 1960s and early 1970s – span a significant section of Yellowknife’s main street, Franklin Avenue, near its intersection with 51 Street.

They are home to, among others, the NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation (which only moved into its current premises a year ago), Ecology North, and the Bijou Boutique store.

Bromley & Sons Ltd has made no formal comment on the decision to seek a buyer.

The buildings are also individually listed. For example, the WH Bromley Building is the most expensive of the group, valued at $2.5 million.

Avison Young, a commercial real estate firm headquartered in Toronto, is administering the sale.

Avison Young’s brochure provides information about Yellowknife, such as its location, population, and the median household income, in an apparent attempt to educate any interested southern buyers.

Property ownership in downtown Yellowknife is the subject of close scrutiny. Many of the city’s office and retail buildings are owned by firms based in the south with large portfolios, who are often accused of taking little interest in careful development of the downtown area.

Earlier this year, when one such company – Northview – first became the subject of a proposed buyout by two other southern firms, one MLA appealed for more property to enter the hands of local owners.

Yellowknife North MLA Rylund Johnson urged larger, out-of-territory owners to sell off some downtown property and “allow local ownership in a city which is desperately in need of competition and local developers.”