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BC: Olympic Village Sale Announcement Leaves Questions Unanswered

Author: Jordan Bateman 2014/04/28

Good news out of Vancouver where the final Olympic Village condo units have been sold - a vital step toward recouping the hundreds of milions of taxpayer dollars the City gambled on this project.

But before Vision Vancouver breaks their arms patting themselves on the backs for “paying off the Olympic Village debt and recovering an extra $70 million,” a few questions: 

  • What’s the status of the $95.32 million owed by the developer (now stuck in bankruptcy proceedings) to the City?
  • What about this point, made by the Sun’s Jeff Lee: “The city isn’t coming out of this fully recompensed. In 2010 it took a $48 million writedown on the properties. It is also unclear whether the debt recovery includes the balance of the outstanding $170 million debt Millennium owed to the city for the land. It had agreed to buy the land for the development from the city for $200 million but only put down a deposit of $30 million. In 2011 Coun. Geoff Meggs said he didn’t expect the city to recover that amount from the sales, and in fact the city could be on the hook for upwards of $100 million once the dust settles.”
  • If everything’s hunky-dory, why were losses of $400 million being predicted by a city hall source just two weeks ago?

I’d love to think I will get these answers out of Mayor Gregor Robertson, but I suspect I’m more likely to see these issues parsed by reporter Bob Mackin in the days and weeks to come.


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