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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Property on the block in ANWR Owner puts small Kaktovik hotel complex up for sale in prime Arctic coastal plain location Rose Ragsdale For Petroleum Directory
It’s not everyday that commercial real estate comes on the market in the middle of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Yet, a 14-bed hotel, with 3,500 square feet for restaurant, bar and office space, is up for sale in the Village of Kaktovik, smack dab in the middle of ANWR.
Known as the Kaktovik Hotel, the lodging complex is the brainchild of Harris Yang, a Korean-American entrepreneur who came to Alaska nearly 40 years ago.
Yang said he invested $700,000 in constructing the hotel in 1999 and is hoping to sell it now that he has retired. The property has been closed for a couple of years.
Yang is offering the property for $450,000 and notes that it can be used as offices for oilfield services, or as a man camp, hunting lodge or tourism business.
Yang: Hotel built for ANWR “The hotel was built for ANWR,” he said. “It’s hard to build up there, and some companies may need rooms or offices. There’s a lot of activity in Kaktovik. There’s construction pretty much every year,”
Oil companies in Canada and the Lower 48 already have expressed interest in the property, according to Yang.
And Kaktovik residents are eager to see it reopen, he said.
A remote community of about 200 residents accessible only by air or sea, Kaktovik has two other operating hotels, the 20-bed Waldo Arms and the six-room, 24-bed Marsh Creek Inn.
Kaktovik visitors, including oilfield and government workers and tourists, appear to be fully accommodated by the two operating hotels, according to a Kaktovik city council member who requested anonymity.
Still, the Kaktovik Inupiat Corp., which owns the Marsh Creek Inn, is currently planning an addition, and the Waldo Arms recently doubled up beds in its rooms to meet demand.
Yang said he immigrated to the United States in 1970 after spending two and a half years fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia. He is also selling the 70-bed Klondike Hotel, with a 4,000-square-foot bar and restaurant, in Fairbanks. The price tag: $3.6 million.
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