City of Vancouver bails out Olympic Village
Remember that rumour that the construction of the Olympic Village is running into credit difficulties and the various assurances that taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook?
Well funny thing.. It turns out the city has authorized a (until now) secret $100 million rescue for the financial troubled Olympic Village. Article in the Globe and Mail:
The new financial obligations are on top of a $190-million loan guarantee the city had to give Fortress Investment Group, which has provided a $683-million loan to Millennium to build the 1,100-unit village.
The village is destined to become a residential complex after the Olympics but most of the condominiums have yet to be sold. Meantime, the value of real estate in Vancouver has plunged in the past several months and is expected to continue to decline over the next couple of years.
This has raised questions about the future of the project and whether Millennium, which agreed to pay the city $193-million for the land on which the village is being built, can still make the venture financially viable.
The latest revelations come despite assurances over the last several weeks by civic officials that financing around the project was not a concern. Other civic officials stated publicly there had not been any changes in the agreement the city had with Millennium - even after council had secretly agreed to forward the company and/or its lender up to $100-million to keep the project afloat.
Now you’re all real estate speculators. This deal is of course, not without a bit of controversy:
Details of the city’s involvement in bailing out the project’s cash-strapped developer have until now been kept secret. Councillors are under a publication ban and have been told they face serious repercussions if they discuss publicly the decisions taken at the in camera meeting.
Growing controversy around the project also appears to be behind the yet-to-be announced resignation of the city’s chief financial officer, Estelle Lo. Ms. Lo tendered her resignation recently after months of apparently expressing concerns the city might be assuming too much financial risk in an effort to meet its obligation to get the Olympic housing built on time, according to a source.
Now that we’re all investors in this project, I find myself getting excited about the future of Vancouver real estate. I’m sure eventually this deal will pay off big - In Montreal it only took 30 years to pay off their Olympic sized debt, and just look at some of the great post-Olympic buying opportunities in Sidney!
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November 6th, 2008 at 10:47 am
November 6th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I second the motion
I HATE THE OLYMPICS. ALWAYS HAVE , ALWAYS WILL.
PS I wish the Olympics could be turned into a cockroach under my steel - toed sh*t stompin boot. STOMP STOMP STOMP!!!
November 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
(If you’re in East Van and wondering what that noise is, it’s my eyes rolling.)
November 6th, 2008 at 11:12 am
November 6th, 2008 at 11:17 am
I think you like to recieve a GUEST OF HONOUR for yourself but you don’t like to HOST your friends,families, and people to YOUR HOME,it’s like a gay playing with his own toys without any opposition.
I LOVE OLYMPICS good to see some sports personalities,cheering up crowds,new faces rather than same drug dealers,hookers,laser gun shots,and lazy bears.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:28 am
November 6th, 2008 at 11:33 am
2012 Olympic Games in London
http://www.sports-city.org/new.....ategory=38
PS I think I better sell my ” OLYMPIC VILLAGE ” stocks.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I think Vancouver’s Olympics will be a bigger bust, because the tax base there is so much bigger. I suspect that they already have a lot of the infrastructure in place to host that kind of event, so there may well be less “investment” required.
Unless I miss my guess, at the local level the taxpayers who have to foot the bill are the home owners, correct? Has anyone considered that with the city’s increasing “investment” and the requisite higher taxes (which until now haven’t been considered on this blog) the Olympics may in fact aid in driving prices right back down?
oh, delicious irony…. you taste like the sweetest blackberry wine!
So, Brownstain…. thanks for footing the bill for the party! I think I speak for all renters when I say I *really* appreciate it! You and your little “wealthy offshore investor” buddies can suck on that one for a while….. your crap warehouse job is paying for:
Interest on the mortgage of your “investment”
Equity that is fast evaporating
Increased taxes to pay for condos that one of us bears will eventually snap up for around 30 cents on the dollar.
Is it just me, or does the day somehow seem brighter? Hey Skidmark, can you and your buddies please “invest” in some more units? C’mon…. you can take an extra few shifts are the whore….I mean WAREhouse? It isn’t like your family wants to see you or anything…..and the city needs your tax money!
November 6th, 2008 at 11:35 am
November 6th, 2008 at 11:43 am
You are semi literate at best and obviously quite stupid.
Are you one of those adults with special needs who got a job at a grocery store?
Nobody would hire you!
Nobody!
November 6th, 2008 at 11:44 am
November 6th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Is anyone honestly surprised by this news?
I just wish they could give the bill ONLY to the majority of voters who said YES to the Olympics and leave the rest of us out of it.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Sorry…If the link I posted on POST # 7 doesn’t work, simply type in
” Olympic Village Bailout delayed ” in your search engine.
They are talking $ One BILLION “British Pounds” and scrambling for means to finance it, given the credit crunch and collapse in the housing market.
The main difference is London’s 2012 is still 4 years away . Vancouver, however, doesn’t have much time, the market and the financing has collapsed, so the writing on the wall is face - saving politicians and bureaucrats will cut some sort of Jean Drapeau like- deal(ie Montreal’s 1976 Olympics) the citizens of Vancouver will be paying for for years.
If the City of Vancouvers Chief Financial Officer is resigning of their own volition,(and not fired) , that’s enough of a warning sign this is one big mess in the making .
Maybe if Gregor Robertson becomes mayor, he can up Skytrain fines to $1000 (cash only !!!)to help pay for the Olympic Village.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
AARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!
November 6th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Always been wondering: is it Greater Vancouver that will foot the bill, or Vancouver proper? I am a New West resident, who thoroughly detests Olympic games, any modern Olympic games. I don’t want to foot bills I did not vote for.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I have to agree. You get what you vote for.
BTW the deal with Millenium was made by the current council, not the old Larry Campbell council which gave Vancouver voters the opportunity to deep six this debacle.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
they knew in the end that Vancouverites would have no choice other than to pay
i done know your mayor but both the mayor of calgary and the mayor of edmonton were big land developers
November 6th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
That’s why Burnaby was secretly glad it lost the Olympic Skating Oval and Richmond was stupid enough to grab it, given the cost rose from $60 Million to $ 178 Million in 4 years.
It appears that Host cities rely on a lot of RE pimpimg to pay for the Olympics. Richmond pimped aces of public land adjacent to the Oval to a high density zoning to help pay for the Oval.
Remember, the 1976 Olympics, the CITY of Montreal( and not the Province of Quebec) was obligated to pay off the Olympics..and it took them approx. 30 years to do so.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Dude, haven’t you been paying attention? There’s ALWAYS money for the wealthy. And the wealthy always bitterly complain about not having enough money. They wealthy are always about to take from the lowest among us, and sadly, they always will.
Unless I miss my guess there’s a municipal election coming up. You should be able to vote in someone who shares your priorities. Gordo et al will still be invited to the potlatch but at least you can deny him the pleasure of attending at premier.
In the end capitalism is al about greed. Regulation is all about channeling greed so it does something constructive. The recent free for all will son come to a sort of balance as greed feeds upon itself to the point of a collapse.
It’s grim, but that’s what will happen.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Hitler in foreclosure — http://tinyurl.com/6xdbcp
November 6th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
In the past I compared Vancouver and real estate to Oshawa or Windsor and GM. I guess I’m just overwhelmed every time at the hold RE pimps have in the entire province. Ontario has one-industry towns. BC has a one industry PROVINCE.
Robert Reich put it best: the current system is “socialism for the rich, capitalism for the rest of us”. If your small business fails, TS. If Millenium fails,get your rich friends in government to bail you out and call it “free enterprise”.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Do you like ICBC monopoly?
People all over the world are paying only $100 for 10 year for insurance while british columbians pay average $2,000 per year.
Capitalism provide equall oppertunity and bring the per capita cost to bottom line while Monopoly can kill any class of human on earth.
It takes only $75 to replace breakin triangle car window but through icbc you must pay $300 deductible.
If you don’t know what is economy system like Capitalism,Socialism,and Monopoly why even bother pouring incoherent and non stopable rambling into blogs.
Fantastic!
That is a case of every single bear on the blogs it was interesting to see mickey finn asking a critical question about deposit against presale he is the one who earn most of star on blogs without even basic knowledge then it’s scullboy.
more interesting to see that nobody answered Mickey because nobody knows a dick here,Nobody!!!!!
The City of Vancouver’s next general local election will be held on:
Saturday, November 15, 2008
8 am – 8 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I’m just glad I won’t be paying for it.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I get the venting. I really do. I’m a bit of a classist myself. My aunt and uncle got very wealthy by overbilling the government of Nova Scotia for a line of retirement homes they built. Then while bitterly complaining about “government inefficiency”, they worked to get both Peter MacKay and Rodney MacDonald elected. Rodney MacDonald was an unemployed gym teacher who ran on a platform of “strong Nova Scotia families and…. get this…. his ability to play a fiddle.
Being a conservative, he was recently mired in a sex scandal.
My aunt and uncle apparently resigned from the Conservative party recently in a fit of pique because someone else got some sort of services contract. My dad told me with a vague air of outrage, as if they were entitled to the contract. I think I annoyed him by laughing and saying “wow, they finally managed to suck all the money out of the Tories, did they? That’s pretty impressive.”
Its a rigged system. But like all systems everywhere, the seeds of its own destruction are planted at the moment of its birth.
THe real estate cycle is …. not over…. but has passed its peak. Now we begin the down side of living in “the best place on earth”. Sales fall off a cliff. Assesments (and therefore taxes) skyrocket. People get laid off. p3 projects begin massive ovverruns, and taxpayers go on the hook.
Suddenly all those magazine articles touting Vancouver as the world’s #1 city don’t seem quite so relevant. It gets harder and harder to make ends meet. “Investors” become buffeted by collapsing sales and escalating prices. They become esperate to get out at and cost. The price of a home plummets.
Then we hit bottom, every investment paper out there screams “For God’s sake, don’t invest in real esatate!” Those of us who have kept out powder dry realize it’s time to buy, and get in early….
All this has happened before, and will happen again as the Cylons say.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
“Mr Rudd’s announcement comes after new research shows 1.1 million low
to middle income households are now spending more than 30 per cent of
their income on housing.”
Wait, didn’t Jurock say we were spending 70% of our income on housing?
You mean above 30% is out of the norm?
November 6th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
An example, in Alberta I remember an 18 year old who had a couple accidents and tickets, stupid kid acting like one. Well, his yearly premium was quoted at $18,000. That’s not a typo. If he was in BC he’d probably have paid about $2,000. The car he was trying to insure wasn’t even worth $18K. I think that kid ended up riding the bus.
Why did I even read your post? LOL! Shame on me.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Well, I’d prefer the system where someone like that takes the bus instead of driving. And if he does choose to drive, I’d rather not be subsidizing his reckless driving.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Ironically, the current real estate crash right now in Vancouver is also another economic casualty.
-4.2% drop in the detached benchmark or a drop of 30K last month … … all the specuvestors are yelling “bailout” now, LOL!!
November 6th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
People forget we used to have private insurance in BC.
Guess what. It didn’t work.
While ICBC is not the best run crown corp out there, in general, it is serving its purpose.
Obviously the vehicle auctioning thing is a black eye to the organization and changes must come out of that event.
But think about it, I pay $1400/yr. My car is worth $45K.
If I’m accident free for 10 years, ICBC has collected $14000 from me and I’ve seen not a single penny. If I total my car tomorrow, ICBC would have to write me a cheque worth a hell of a lot more $14,000.
If you want to criticize a crown corporation, BC Ferries should be first on the hit list. Ferries always breaking down. Undocking the ships while cars are still loading. Not waiting 2 minutes for an ambulance with a sick kid. They’ve got to be the worst run corporation of all time…
November 6th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
1. “but we’ve got MILLIONS to let the RE pimps put on a potlatch ”
Isn’t potlatch an old party tradition of the inuit? Can someone explain to me this usage?
2. “Lane housing(…)”
What is lane housing and why is it now permitted but before not?
Thanks in advance,
arit
November 6th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I’ll try to find out when it’s over.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I don’t know the story, one of his co workers told me (I asked last week and he just got back to me now)
November 6th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I sure can’t complain…
November 6th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Right, friend of mine is working there as IT contractor making close to 200K per annum.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
One goal of the potlatch was to maintain or increase social standing by giving away food and goods (after European contact these became imported consumer goods rather than mainly foodstuffs and ceremonial items). I guess I misused the term, in that the Vancouver “potlatch” consists of taking resources that belongs to everybody, and funneling it to a few greedy jerks. The First Nations goal was to give everyone a share of their accumulated wealth, and maintain social harmony.
I hope I haven’t insulted anyone with either my use of the term, or my (ignorant) explanation.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Where ever those type of corporations exist those are all part of Monopoly what ever rates they charge by province makes no sense where ever you go you must pay unique rates sets by them.Gosh remember BCTEL use to charge their customers $1.60 per minute as soon the competition arrived now you can keep on talking for $1.60 your friends would be surprise that you are not hanging up your phone on them,I just want to tell idiot likes scullboy,bdk, and any of them who support their incohrent ramblings that competition only exist under Capitalism and benefit every single person on earth,where ever it is available it is for you.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
But I know contractors working at BC Hydro and the hospital making $340K.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
BC is probably the most expensive province in Canada. If this real estate crash doesn’t happen to the levels I would like to see, I made a promise to my parents - if i’m not in a house within 5 years, I would move back home.
There’s no reason to continue working my ass off, spinning my wheels and getting now where. Life’s too short for all this BS.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
“I’m wanting to sell the house , but with this market I have decided to rent for 6-12 months. and wait and see. this is perfect for professional bachelor or bachelorette…”
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.....35351.html
November 6th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
The only time I’ve seen publication bans in Canada, it was either on:
a) election results prior to all polls closing
b) high-profile court cases (Homolka/Bernardo)
c) national security details from the Canadian military
This has nothing to do with any of those things!
November 6th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Good luck with that. LOL>
November 6th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Oddly, I’m not upset. In fact, I’m downright gleeful considering the $100 mil (minimum) that the “owners” will have unwillingly send to the city coffers to help pay for a 10 day party. Sucks to be them. Especially when the Olympic village will be another Leaky-Condo disaster.
Mark my words!
November 6th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
November 6th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
WOWSERS gotta give you credit finally you admitted without qualification that YOU are DUMB people! Love it!
November 6th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Skidmarks, your fake ESL grammar is getting pretty bad. Less quantity, more quality please!
November 6th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
But most of all shame on all of us for letting them getting away with it.
November 6th, 2008 at 7:10 pm