Yukonstruct opens new building and it's already near capacity

It's being called thefirst "innovation hub"north of 60, and it's just opened up in Whitehorse.

Yukonstruct's new building opened this month on Second Avenue downtown. The 24,000-square-foot space brings together all of Yukonstruct's partners under one roof, andit's already pretty full.

"We are pretty much at capacity," said Jaret Slipp, executive director of Yukonstruct. Slipp said the organizationcurrently has200 members.

"If we keep on the train we've been on for the last four years, we will need a bigger space, for sure," said Slipp.

Yukonstruct is a society that runs programs and workshops, and offers shared work spaces and resources through their different hubs located in the new building.

(Co)spaceis a collaborative workspace where people can rent permanent desks or offices, or "hot desk" (i.e., show up and grab an available space)

"These are all single entrepreneurs who would otherwise work out of their pyjamas in their basement, or out of a coffee shop," said Slipp.

Down the hall from (co)spaceis Makerspace, whichhas several studios for artists making things like leather bags, or jewellery. Ithas $150,000 worth of technological and industrial equipment for members to use, including alaser cutter, woodworking studio, sewing stations, and a 3D printer.

Another area includes "launch space," intended to help entrepreneurs grow their business.

"Space just isn't enough, you have to animate that space with events, and networking, and workshops and skills, where needed," said Slipp.

Yukon College and the Yukon Development Corporation will also run programs in the building.

"Our real hope with this space is ... to help foster new innovative ideas, new businesses, help diversify the economy, help the Yukon become a real global player in terms of northern innovations," said Slipp.

Yukonstruct started four years ago out of a building in Whitehorse industrial area and was mostly volunteer-driven, according to Slipp.

"[The] real next step is to grow our programing and work with our entrepreneurs and figure out what they need," he said.