Rio Olympic Village Begins Retrofit

(ATR) Work is ongoing to remove Paralympic upgrades to the Rio 2016 Olympic Village in an effort to sell the luxury apartments in the complex.

A spokesperson for Odebrecht confirmed to Around the Rings that apartments in the village will be on sale to the general public by "mid 2017." The company Carvalho Hosken developed the property, while Odebrecht is in charge of the renovations.

"The apartments are undergoing a retrofit, which is the completion works of the units for delivery to the future owner," the spokesperson said to ATR. "[This] was already expected to be done after the Rio 2016 Games."

In total the Rio 2016 village will have 3,604 apartments for sale, known as the "Ilha Pura" community. Units will be available with two, three, or four bedrooms. It will be the second attempt to sell the luxury apartments, after 240 units were sold from October 2014 to August 2016.

Ahead of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Village was deemed "not safe" by teams moving in. Delays in construction left organizers unable to test the village before athletes moved in before the Games, leading to a litany of problems. Eventually, all problems were sorted out, much to the delight of athletes.

Given that only seven percent of units were sold ahead of the 2016 Olympics, the city government began exploring other options to fill the complex. City hall and Odebrecht both confirmed to ATR that a program to offer apartments to civil servants at discounted rates had been discussed.

"We are always studying new possibilities of agreement, as is usual in the real estate market," the Odebrecht spokesperson told ATR. "Each commercial agreement carried out works with different conditions."

Carvalho Hosken is owned by Brazilian developer Carlos Carvalho, one of the first Rio-based real estate moguls who began developing in Barra da Tijuca. Ahead of the Olympic Games Carvalho estimated that he could make $1 billion from his works related to Rio 2016 developments, before the ongoing deep recession in Brazil. Carvalho controversially acquired land rights around the Olympic golf course. In exchange, he received tax breaks and helped build the course with private money.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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