South Anchorage development: bustling King and C from Dimond to Klatt.

AuthorWhite, Rindi
PositionSPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

A few blocks away from the hustle and bustle of Dimond Boulevard, King Street in south Anchorage is a mecca for industrial commerce. Nearby on C Street, land is being developed left and right, much of it for commercial business. The changes have caused a little tension between commercial and industrial uses in the area, and the Municipality of Anchorage Community Development office plans to conduct a study of industrial land in the South Anchorage area.

Cruise down King Street and you can find a sampling of industrial companies that build Alaska in one way or another. Contech Engineered Solutions, a civil engineering company that works on storm water, drainage, and runoff solutions (their yard contains acres of glittering corrugated pipe), is at 100th Avenue. Charlie's Produce is nearby with a warehouse and yard busy with the company's distinctive box trucks delivering fresh produce, flowers, and plants around Southcentral.

Many of the users have been there for years. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation's fabrication shop is there, as are Udelhoven Companies and Fairweather LLC. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation makes production modules for the North Slope, among other oilfield needs, at the fabrication shop. Udelhoven was founded in Alaska in 1970 to serve oilfield producers and general contractors. Fairweather was founded in 1976 to provide remote aviation weather observation services but today performs medical, aviation, logistics, weather forecasting, and other services for the oil and gas industry.

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Among the oilfield service companies are many other run-of-the-mill users, the kind every community needs to keep running: a handful of auto repair shops, an industrial carpet cleaner, several home builders and commercial construction companies, plumbing and heating and ventilation supplier Keller Supply, Blinds Unlimited--all have shops large and small along King or its primary offshoot, Schoon Street.

Less Conventional Users

Increasingly, the industrial corridor has become home to some less-conventional users. Arctic Tails--a dog daycare, training, and grooming facility--was until recently a tenant along King Street. And for the last five years, Studio 49, a dance studio, has operated from a King Street store.

"Arctic Tails was here, now King Street Brewery. A lot of different things are starting to pop up and I really like it. It feels like a little tiny town," says Studio 49 owner Mikal Preston.

Teaching dance amid...

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