The Teslin Tlingit Council has purchased the Shoppers Plaza on Main Street and the Tutshi Building along Second Avenue, the first nation announced Friday afternoon.

Included in the real estate package along with the office and retail businesses is the vacant Second Avenue lot directly across from the Andrew Philipsen Law Centre and a vacant Lambert Street lot behind the former Whitehorse Esso station, which was recently demolished.

Peter Johnston, deputy chief of the Teslin Tlingit Council, said this morning the council was approached by Ed Demchuk and Art Pearson, the principals in Dyea Developments Inc..

'We had previously purchased Whitehorse Beverages from Art Pearson so we started a relationship with him, in a sense,' Johnston said.

He said the Chilkahit Holdings Ltd., the council's wholly owned-business subsidiary, does not plan on making any changes in the operation of the two office and retail complexes.

Records at the land title office indicate the Shoppers Plaza building was purchased for $4.36 million, while the Tutshi Building was purchased for $2.3 million.

Johnston believes the new investments put the Teslin Tlingit Council among the self-governing first nations with the most aggressive business portfolio, next to the Vuntut Gwichin First Nation of Old Crow.

'The Shoppers Plaza is a prime location,' Johnston said. 'They had done the business survey and they said Third and Main is the busiest intersection in downtown Whitehorse.'

He said there is nothing to indicate that will change anytime soon, even with the presence of the Chilkoot Centre at the north end of the downtown.

Main Street, said Johnston, is the banking centre, and home to several government offices, including several long-term tenants in the Shoppers Plaza.

Darrell Pasloski, owner of the Shoppers Drug Mart franchise in Whitehorse, said today he has no plans to leave his Main Street store in the plaza.

Shoppers, he said, just recently renewed its long-term lease there.

'We are committed to the Main Street location and it's business as usual,' said Pasloski.

Johnston said the Shoppers Plaza purchase includes the retail space occupied by Inter Sport and the restaurant space below Inter Sport.

The Tutshi Building, he said, is also strategically placed, with its location just a block from the Whitehorse waterfront.

'This purchase also anticipates future new developments on undeveloped lots in the downtown core included in the purchase coupled with the recent acquisition of vacant commercial lands on the Alaska Highway,' Johnston said in the press release announcing the deal.

In addition to Whitehorse Beverages, the Teslin Tlingit Council and its Chilkahit Holdings own a number of other Whitehorse-based businesses, including Klondike Copier.

Johnston said the real estate deal, which closed last Thursday, was completed with financing provided by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

The Tlingit word Chilkahit translates into 'high cache,' where food, berries and dry meat, etc., would be stored for future use, he said.

In this case, said Johnston, one could interpret the meaning as 'high cache' for investment into the future by the first nation, or 'high cash' to reflect the goal of the investment subsidiary.