Alaska Native corporations launch variety of new businesses: from gravel pits to employment agencies, ANCs grow and prosper.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: Company overview

Alaska Native regional and village corporations engage in a wide variety of businesses to benefit their shareholders and the state. Some of their latest ventures involve a gravel pit, residential property development, an employment agency and larger investments into other businesses. This article provides a snapshot of these enterprises and how they are contributing to Alaska.

NEW GRAVEL PIT FOR EKLUTNA INC. AND CIRI

The opening of Alaska Aggregate Products (AAP) on about 60 acres of Eklutna land created the first Native-owned aggregate company to be based in the Anchorage area.

AAP has a five-year agreement with Eklutna Inc. and Cook Inlet Region Inc. (CIRI) to develop the Eklutna gravel pit and other aggregate sites. Eklutna Inc. owns the surface lands in the development area, while CIRI owns the subsurface rights. AAP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alaska Interstate Construction LLC (AIC). AIC--jointly owned by CIRI and Nabors Industries Ltd.--has historically provided labor and equipment for construction and mechanical maintenance, gravel or ice road and pad development, and bridge construction for the greater Prudhoe Bay area.

With the current construction boom, AAP is poised to meet the Anchorage area's growing demand for aggregate, said Curtis McQueen, Eklutna's director of corporate affairs. In the past, most of the sand and gravel used for Anchorage-area construction has been transported from the Mat-Su Valley. The gravel pit in Eklutna promises to reduce transportation costs and provide contractors with a new source for high-quality, competitively priced sand and gravel products, McQueen said.

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"All the aggregate coming into the Anchorage market was being railed or trucked in from Wasilla and Palmer," he said. "In the average summer, an average of four to six million tons of aggregate is coming in from Wasilla and Palmer."

AAP began selling aggregate in May. Its initial customers include the Eagle River Wal-Mart expansion, the University of Alaska Anchorage and CIRI's Tikahtnu Commons retail center in northeast Anchorage.

By the third month of operation, the sand and gravel pit was well on its way to processing 100,000 tons of aggregate, McQueen said. According to estimates, up to 50 million tons of gravel could be extracted. With more than a billion dollars worth of highway work happening in Anchorage over the next five years, AAP is planning on providing a lot of aggregate for concrete, asphalt and other uses.

However, McQueen said AAP isn't out to take over the market. It's merely providing another alternative to the local area. "There was plenty of room for smaller players to come in, and that's what we've done."

The timing was right to create the sand and gravel business, according to CIRI. "We started the business because of strong...