The early bird gets the worm....

Or, in the case of Takhini North, the early contractor gets the property.

Last Friday, Randy Audette was deemed to have the winning bid for 46 Normandy Rd. thanks to his timing.

Audette tied with Wayne Cunningham for the highest bid of $350,000 on the 4,850-square-metre multiple housing site in the city's bid process for the two new commercial lots in Takhini North.

The only other bid on the Normandy Road property came from René Bouvier, who submitted a price of $320,000. The minimum bid had been set at $250,000.

Despite the tie, Audette will have first dibs on the property simply because he got his bid into the city just a couple of hours ahead of Cunningham.

Under the city's land disposition policy, a position repeated in bid documents, in the event of a tie the land would go to whoever had his or her bid in first.

In this case, Audette handed his in at 11:35 a.m. Friday while Cunningham brought his in at 1:38 p.m.

Neither contractor could be reached for comment today.

The other lot up for sale at 10 Rhine Way went to Santhana Djearam, who also couldn't be reached for comment, for $250,000. That was a total of $75,000 over the minimum bid price of $175,000.

Bouvier, again, had the unsuccessful low bid, coming in at $195,000 for the 3,660-square-metre site.

Cathy Small, the city's subdivsion lands co-ordinator, said today the number of bids and proposed prices came as little surprise to her after she heard from a number of potential buyers interested in the sites in the weeks leading up to the tender deadline.

"There's been good interest,” she said. "It's a great location.”

After seeing the prices set out in the Yukon government's recent bid process for the new Ingram lots off Hamilton Boulevard next to Arkell, Small said she anticipated the Takhini North bids would come in at about what they did. She acknowledged the two neighbourhoods have very different lots.

Bids on the Ingram sites were opened last week, with all four duplex lots being claimed. Only two of the nine multi-housing lots and eight of the 14 townhouse sites were claimed.

Winning bids on the duplex lots in Ingram came in between $152,300 and $156,200, while multi-housing sites had winning bids of $105,000 to $135,000.

Finally, winning bids for townhouse lots there were between $201,000 to $336,500 for sites that will accommodate between four and six townhouses.

The Ingram lots are typically smaller than those in Takhini North, with the multi-residential lots ranging in size from 992 square metres to 6,840 square metres.

While the bids for the two larger lots in Takhini North have been awarded, those interested in getting their hands on a new duplex or single-family property in the neighbourhood will have to wait another week to learn if they are successful.

Applicants have until 4:30 p.m. Friday to get their paperwork into the city for the 30 single-family and 12 duplex lots that will be sold through a lottery.

The duplex lots range from $160,420 (including the GST) for 878 square metres to $184,800 for 1,046 square metres.

The single-detached sites are priced between $93,765 for 537 square metres and $114,345 for 749 square metres.

The city is set to hold the lottery at 2 p.m. next Tuesday in council chambers.