Strawberry Meadow’s Sitka Lodge will see a bump in activity as the existing accommodation nearly doubles over the next few months.
Workforce accommodation company Civeo will be adding over 450 rooms to the current 646 rooms to provide accommodation for contractors involved in the LNG Canada project.
Civeo corporate development and investor relations manager Regan Nielsen said the additional rooms are part of an 18-month commitment to provide accommodation for the workforce contracted by LNG Canada, JGC/Fluor and Coastal GasLink.
“We will be expanding Sitka Lodge to a little over 1,100 rooms. There is room to expand and the demand is there,” said Nielsen.
He said the additional accommodation requirement came about through contracted revenue of $70 million realized over the past three months.
Nielsen declined, however, to say how the rooms would be divided up between the three clients.
The room commitments at Sitka are in addition to the previously announced four contracts totalling $100 million awarded to Civeo for mobile camps supporting TransCanada’s 640km Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline project.
CGL will use its allotment of rooms at Sitka to house workers for the construction of the westernmost portion of the proposed natural gas pipeline. JGC/Fluor will house its workforce at Sitka for the initial construction phases of the LNG Canada facility in Kitimat.
LNG Canada external relations director Susannah Pierce said its allotment of rooms at Sitka will provide accommodation for workers on the LNG Canada site who are required prior to LNG Canada’s 4,500-bed Cedar Valley Lodge being completed.
“We expect to have Cedar Valley Lodge construction completed in advance of construction ramp up,” said Pierce.
“Contracting for rooms in Sitka Lodge is part of LNG Canada’s integrated housing strategy to reduce the impact on housing demand and affordability that an influx of workers can have on a community.”
Civeo expects to spend approximately $15 million in capital to expand the Sitka Lodge to over 1,100 rooms, in addition to the previously announced capital allotment of $10 million for the four mobile camp contracts supporting the CGL pipeline project.
Calgary-based workforce camp accommodation provider Black Diamond will provide 304 rooms, with Civeo drawing on existing assets to make up the difference.
“We will be sub-renting the rooms from Black Diamond to supplement the existing rooms. We are in the middle of expanding right now,” said Nielsen.
He expects the rooms will become available at the beginning of the third quarter of 2019.
Black Diamond is one of the companies contracted to provide camps along the length of the pipeline.
Last year the company was awarded a $42.5 million contract to construct a 908-bed turnkey camp outside Chetwynd in a partnership with the West Moberly First Nations.
The company said at the time that it expects to start construction of the Moberly Lake camp in the first quarter of 2019.
