n Sugt’stun, the language of the Alutiiq people on Alaska’s southern coast, “Naswik” means “lookout.”

The four-story Chugach Naswik building will be one of the tallest buildings in Valdez when it is completed. From the intersection of Meals Avenue and Egan Drive—the southern terminus of the Richardson Highway—the property affords a tremendous view of Valdez Harbor and the surrounding Chugach Mountains, making it an ideal place to look out from, indeed.

Watterson Construction is building the 23,000-square-foot building, a mixture of nightly and short-term residential units and common space. It will have thirty-six units; six on the top floor will be two-bedroom, two-bath units, and the rest will be studio apartments, each with their own kitchens, and with a shared laundry room on each floor. The lobby and lounge area below will have a small kitchen and café space and seating area.

As a joint project of three Alaska Native corporations, Chugach Naswik is also a physical manifestation of looking out for a community in need, be they shareholders or others who dwell in the Land of Waterfalls.

The partnership group developing Chugach Naswik is called TCC. The name stands for two village corporations, Tatitlek and Chenega, and the regional Chugach Alaska Corporation.

The corporations originally formed TCC to service the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), and the housing project furthers that mission. TCC workers need a place to live while they work one-week-on, one-week-off shifts, but Valdez has a severe lack of short-term housing.

“Naswik represents the kind of development we imagined when TCC began providing oil spill response services to Alyeska in Valdez nearly three decades ago—affordable, short-term housing amid the region’s scarce options to support training to expand employment opportunities for our Alaska Native shareholders,” said Chugach President Josie Hickel at the groundbreaking ceremony on May 22. “Most importantly, it is rooted in the Valdez community where Chugach Alaska Services and TCC recently renewed long-term contracts on TAPS.”

Chugach Board Chairman Sheri Buretta added, “This facility will help our three corporations maintain the long-term contract we have on TAPS, create future development opportunities, and give us the ability to play a more active role in one of our region’s largest communities.”

Buretta relates the project directly to the corporations’ origin, which was tied to the land claims settlement that allowed TAPS to be built. “Chugach gave up land at the terminal… for promises of jobs with TAPS when the pipeline was being conceived,” she says. “Our people lived off the land; our capacity to have contracts with TAPS in those early days was limited. Our founders really envisioned us having a presence in Valdez that we just have not had. Fifty years later, we are able to have that presence. This event will help direct the highest need for the housing.”

After the groundbreaking, major work on the project had to wait until spring road weight restrictions were lifted to haul in the heavy materials for the steel structure. Construction is expected to continue through July 2024.

The building design is focused on representing the natural environment of Prince William Sound. Hickel says the interior will feature artwork recognizing the history and heritage of the Chugach region’s people.

Unit rentals will first go to accommodate TCC workers, Hickel says. There has also been discussion with other Valdez employers interested in leasing some of the units, and some units will be set aside for nightly rentals.

“There is plenty of opportunity, but we want to focus on building the space first,” she says.

In addition to workforce housing, Hickel says local jobs will be available during the construction phase and, after completion, workers will be needed to maintain the building and manage the front desk, in addition to indirect jobs that get a boost by having the facility located in Valdez.

TCC employees are not alone in the scramble for living quarters in Valdez. Mayor Sharon Scheidt says the lack of short-term housing has led to shortages in other housing categories, which ripples throughout the entire real estate market and makes economic growth difficult.

“One of the struggles with not having enough housing on the market in the community is the struggle for employers, large and small, bringing people to our community,” she says.

It’s difficult to bring qualified employees to the hospital or into local schools, for example, if there aren’t homes to move into. With the lack of short-term housing, she explains, some single-family homes get turned into short-term housing for multiple shift workers. That isn’t the best alternative for the short-term workers; moreover, it removes single-family homes from the market, making it difficult to entice well-qualified, long-term employees and families to the area.

With more short-term housing on the way, the mayor hopes more single-family homes will become available.

“This is just one step; it obviously doesn’t solve the whole problem, but we are grateful to TCC for helping to solve the problem,” Scheidt says.

The Valdez City Council is working on other ways to address the housing shortage through public-private partnerships and incentives. Scheidt points to a twenty-eight-unit senior housing project by Cordes & Company and Valdez Senior Housing Associates and to a planned-unit development called the St. Patrick Subdivision, being built by Valdez developer Bill Harris. That phased development will include multi-family and single-family housing.

Valdez City Council donated the land for the senior housing development, along with other incentives, and with the St. Patrick Subdivision, Harris can take part in a new incentive program the city council created to help developers offset higher infrastructure costs related to housing projects in Valdez.

“He may receive up to $1 million to help fund infrastructure costs related to the development of the subdivision, and can receive a $10,000 rebate per completed unit,” Scheidt says.

TCC also plans to keep going in this direction. Another building across the street from Chugach Naswik could hold a cultural facility and support training and other programs or events. But that’s a future project.

“We’re going to get this done first,” Buretta says.

Once Chugach Naswik is finished, though, look out. More housing is on the rise in Valdez—or, as the Alutiiq people named it, Suacit, which in Sugt’stun means “place that rises into view.”