https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DawsonApartments

KDO is assessing the feasibility of building a 12 to 20 unit residential rental apartment complex in Dawson City. We need to determine what kinds of pricing and features would be important to incorporate so that it meets the needs of community residents and can be affordably operated. Your input in this survey will provide important direction.

This survey is anonymous and no individual responses will be published. Thank you for your time and assistance!

KDO announced today that it is to undertake a feasibility study of a not-for-profit apartment complex in Dawson City.

KDO has shown that bringing more housing onto the market is a critical ingredient of economic development in the region.  Having done substantial research into the need and demand for housing in the community through surveys and public events, KDO is now poised to collate that research and combine it with financial viability assessments to refine planning for a proposed 12 to 20 unit residential complex in Dawson City.

‘Dawson is a special community and the opportunities here are enormous, for work and business. People want to move here and stay but housing shortages are a constant frustration. We must all recognize this and work together to tackle it in a constructive manner’ said Greg Hakonson, KDO Co-President.

The proposed project is envisioned as sustainable, compact rental apartment units that would be suitable for single individuals or couples.  There is a significant shortage of housing of every kind in Dawson City, particularly 1-bedroom units, and yet building costs relative to return on investment deter private sector investment.

‘A rental housing project on a not-for-profit basis poses our best chance of adding a significant amount of new housing stock to the market in the near future’ said Brian Stethem, KDO Co-President.

KDO is a collaborative partnership and will be working with the federal and territorial housing agencies, the City of Dawson and Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in to complete this work. Residents and others interested are encouraged to contact us to take part.

For further information contact:
Brian Stethem, Co-President 867-993-3826 or
Evelyn Pollock, Project Manager 867-993-2306

Klondike Development Organization conducted a survey of Dawson employers to inform strategies to improve our region’s labour market- ultimately, to make sure our community has access to the workforce it requires.

Click on this link to view the presentation summarizing the survey results:
Labour Market Survey (Summary Presentation)

Access to labour was identified as a key challenge limiting business growth in our 2011 research, and was included in regional economic development planning undertaken by the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in. KDO’s labour market survey and labour market strategy work are taking place as part of current community economic development projects.

If you would like a more detailed survey report, just let us know by emailing klondikedevelopment@gmail.com

Looking to buy a house, some land, or a place to do business in the Klondike?

Our Property Search Map is devised to help you see very quickly what’s for sale in Dawson City. You can even filter your search for specific areas, property types, zoning, etc.

As of July 9 2013, our inventory of properties for sale includes:

24 houses (both within and outside of City limits)
5 vacant residential lots
5 vacant residential lots with older buildings on site that may require demolition
5 operating businesses that include property in sale (three with residences attached)
9 vacant commercial properties (allow for some residential uses)
4 vacant commercial buildings
5 private industrial lots
19 government industrial lots

Just zoom in and click on the highlighted properties for more details. Good luck!

Big thank you to everybody who took the time to come out to our latest Partnership Forum on June 26 – Envisioning Future Community Economic Development.

We had a positive discussion on the strengths and opportunities in our local economy and recognized some long-term weaknesses and threats.

Best of all we generated a long list of potential investments in development projects for the future and, unexpectedly, also a large number of possible business opportunities. More to come soon on the latter but we have updated our venture opportunities listing with what we heard.

We will be publishing public reports on all our forums from now on. This latest can be accessed here, and includes the full lists of potential projects and business ideas.

For those that missed the forum, the presentation can be accessed here.

We invite everybody to participate in a partnership forum dedicated to identifying future community-based economic development projects:

City of Dawson has two residential properties for sale at 2nd and York.

For more details follow:

http://www.cityofdawson.ca/municipal-info/tenders-proposals-rfps

When KDO was formed in 2009, there was much discussion of the community population. Falling 18% from a high of 2151 in 1997 to a low of 1765 in 2003, the Dawson population had settled and stagnated, and was at 1873 in 2009.

There was a strong feeling that this decline was critically impacting the community’s economy, its resilience and successful enterprise development. A focus on stimulating modest population growth could contribute significantly to sustaining both public and private services, employment, incomes and the quality of life of Dawson’s residents. City of Dawson revenues, for example, are closely tied to the population and economic base.

This population growth objective was written into the KDO strategic plan in 2009 as a measurable gauge of success and a return to the previous high of 1997 was imagined.

The latest population report from the Yukon Bureau of Statistics puts the Dawson population at 2000 for the first time in 14 years. This is a rise of 127, or 7%, in the three years since KDO started work.

Amidst everything, sometimes it is just nice to recognize when things are going well.

Dawson Population Chart December 2012
Dawson Population Table December 2012