Our vacant Olympic Village is in the news again and the headlines are growing more negative: Vancouver taxpayers of hook for $1 billion as most Olympic Village units unsold.
Sixty-six per cent of Vancouver’s pricey Olympic Village condos remain unsold — a total of 483 units at the massive False Creek development that served as athletes’ housing during the two-week 2010 Games.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, whose city remains on the hook for more than $1.03 billion of the cost of the project, predicts it will take a “full two-year term” to sell the remaining units.
“There is some concern we’re going into another [economic] dip,” Robertson said last week. “[But] I have full confidence in the developer and the marketing taking place.
“I hope the market kicks in and they get sold. I’d like to see it fill up sooner rather than later.”
A spokeswoman for condo king Bob Rennie, who is handling the sales, said Tuesday a major marketing campaign will begin later this month for the unsold units.
“Incentives are yet to be determined, but they could include things like free washers and dryers,” she told The Province.
That’s like getting two square feet for absolutely free! .. and every square foot counts when you’ve got kitchen counters like this.
Meanwhile, lawyer Bryan Baynham said she has 11 clients who want to get deposits back on 13 suites in the village.
Have you tried offering them more washers and dryers?
Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs said the city is trying its best to maximize the return on taxpayers’ massive pre-Olympics bailout of the project.
“It’s too early to say how we’ve succeeded, and a lot depends on the pace of sales,” he said. “It shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody that the risk remains.
“I have no doubt that, down the road, this will be seen as a successful project — but we’re in strange economic times.”
Fear not! We have FREE WASHERS AND DRYERS!!
