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You Can Live in the Olympic Village After All

Posted February 23, 2010 by Matthew Denton

Turning investments into something profitable…or maybe not.

After welcoming 3,000 athletes and paralympians in the recently concluded Winter Games, Vancouver’s Olympic Village is set to be turned over to the government who will convert it to luxury apartments made available to the public within the year.

The village’s designer, Roger Bailey plans on housing 16,000 people in the future. One report states, “According to (him), after completing service for the Olympics, the 10 buildings in the village will provide approximately 1,100 residential units for all kinds of people. ‘There will be about 250 units for low income people, 120 units as rental housing, the other to be sold in the market,’ said Bayley. ‘We are trying to build that diversity between wealthy house owners and those who can’t afford that. We are trying to make a more inclusive environment.’”

But is it a wise move for the city?
If you ask me, it’s not really what would fulfill their ambitious plan after tremendous financial headache was experienced last year. In January 2009, the city was allowed to access unlimited funding to complete the village with more than $100 million in loan guarantees. But the worse news came when its main U.S. financier Fortress Investment Group stopped paying the developer. What we now see as an impressive architectural project is really a project that won’t be seeing profitability. I’m certain about this unless of course, home values in Vancouver find some miracle within the year.
To quote Sean Gregory of Time Magazine , “Yes, the digs are nice, and the development has won kudos from environmentalists for the energy-efficient design of the complex, which has green roofs and will reuse rainwater, and for its easy access to public transportation. Metro Vancouver housing prices have rebounded from the worst recession lulls — year-over-year condo prices were up 15% in January — but it’s still not the best time to be betting on real estate…The spectacle has created a cruel irony: as the Olympic athletes enjoy the good life — free food, spacious rooms — in a taxpayer-financed housing complex, just a few blocks away sits Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighborhood, site of some of the most acute poverty in North America. Homeless people and drug addicts hole up in back alleys; one church alone shelters 300 people on any given night.”

Now that’s a great way to put it. Looking at the Vancouver Olympic Village, it may not come close to Sydney’s successful marketing of its Olympic Village (all units are now occupied) so far, but I’m sure it won’t be like Athens’ own version where the complexes are now hosting to ghettos in the country.

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