A project meant to bring more than 70 units of new workforce housing to downtown Juneau is dead before it could even break ground. The developer blames the city for stopping it. The city says the project was a risk to public safety.

In late 2023, the city’s planning commission approved a conditional land-use permit for the construction of a 72-unit apartment building downtown.

The six-story building was set to be located on three vacant lots on Gastineau Avenue, just uphill from the downtown library. It was meant to be workforce housing – all furnished and ready to go by the summer of 2025.

But it’s been nearly two years, and the summer of 2025 has come and gone. The lots where the development was supposed to be are still empty. Steve Soenksen, the private developer behind t

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