Vancouver residents will head to the polls Saturday to elect a new mayor. The chosen elected official will oversee the 2010 Games. (Getty Images)Electing a Games-time Leader
Vancouverites will decide their new mayor on Saturday and that decision could be shaped by a scandal over financing of the Olympic Village.
The Globe and Mail revealed details of a secret Oct. 14 meeting in which the city council voted for an $84 million bailout loan for Millennium Developments. Millennium is the ailing company behind the $922 million False Creek condominium development on former civic land where 2,800 athletes will stay during the 2010 Games.
Non-Partisan Association Councilor Peter Ladner, who is running for mayor, said he is “prepared to lose this election to save this project and protect the city’s taxpayers.”
Rules governing Vancouver city council meetings allow real estate deals to be discussed in camera, but Vision Vancouver mayoralty candidate Gregor Robertson questioned why the Millennium bailout was wrapped in secrecy while American lawmakers voted publicly on the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package.
Three quarters of the Olympic Village mortgage is held by New York-based Fortress Credit Corporation, with the City of Vancouver holding the rest.
Parent Fortress Investment Group bought Whistler Blackcomb-owner Intrawest for $2.8 billion in 2006 and has floundered amid the global credit crunch. It successfully found emergency financing last month to prevent Intrawest from seeking bankruptcy protection.
Legacy Dead?
Legacy Lives 2009 hasn’t shaped up to be the major event planners had hoped it would be, drawing little interest from delegates and organizations.
The canceled Jan. 26-30 Hyatt Regency convention was supposed to draw 400 international sports experts and decision makers. Ian Buckley, stakeholder relations manager of event host 2010 Legacies Now, said only 30 delegates and five exhibitors registered.
Legacy Lives, announced last January, was competing with the March 23-27 SportAccord in Denver and March 29-31 IOC and United Nations’ World Conference on Sport and Environment in Vancouver.
"The market is being saturated with major events here all in a short period of time, all talking about the same thing," Buckley said. "You factor in the economy on top of that."
Admission to the five-day event started at $1,005 while exhibit space rented for $3,854 and up.
Buckley said some of the sessions from the canceled January convention would be integrated into the World Conference on Sport and Environment. He said Legacy Lives could still be staged overseas in 2009.
Legacy Lives was staged in 2007 in London, England and 2008 in Barbados by London-based consultancy pmpLEGACY. Chairman Peter Mann did not respond to an interview request.
Convention Center’s Gordon Campbell admits there were significant cost increases for Vancouver 2010’s main press area. (B. Mackin)Green Top Almost Finished
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell finished planting the greenery on the living roof of the Vancouver Convention Centre in a Nov. 6 ceremony.
The site of the 2010 Games’ International Broadcast Centre includes 400,000 plants on a 6.175 acre “green roof” equal in size to three Canadian Football League fields.
The $739.6 million waterfront complex opens in early April 2009. It was originally supposed to cost $414.5 million and open in July 2008.
“Significant increase in costs, no question about that,” Campbell conceded. “The fact of the matter is we’re going to have an increase in benefits. There’s a tendency to look at one side of the equation, not both sides.”
Olympic Broadcast Services Vancouver, the 2010 Games’ host broadcasting company, takes occupancy in late September 2009.
…Briefs
The B.C. Court of Appeal will hear an appeal on the Dec. 8, 2007 ruling over ownership of 2010 hockey venue General Motors Place. If the appeal is successful, there could be a new owner before the Games and VANOC will have one less sponsor. Current owners Aquilini Investment Group are a Vancouver 2010 sponsor.
With reporting from
Bob Mackin in Vancouver.
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