Thousands view athletes’ condos after key to village is passed to city
LENA SIN
Province
Thousands of potential buyers and those just curious gather for the official opening of the Olympic Village to the public, as the condos in the complex went up for sale. Jenelle Schneider — PNG
With all that and more, was this a case of deja vu?
Indeed, the public opening of the Olympic Athletes Village on Saturday had all the elements of a mini Winter Games. But more importantly, it was a slick marketing campaign to convince would-be buyers to purchase the remaining luxury condos at the village.
“It’s a big day for Vancouver, we’re really proud of this neighbourhood and I’m feeling really confident there’s going to be vigorous sales and this will be a real landmark for the city,” said an optimistic Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.
Riding on an Olympic afterglow, real-estate marketers attracted thousands of people to the opening of Millennium Water, as the village has been renamed.
An estimated 5,000 people were expected to pass through the display suites on Saturday — a mix of curious locals wanting to see where the Olympic athletes stayed during the Games, along with serious buyers.
Sales are critical for the city-financed $1.16 billion project.
The city was forced to take over the massive project after builder Millennium Development Corp. lost its financing in 2008.
The city loaned the company between $700 million and $750 million to finish the project. Millennium still owes the city an additional $170 million for the purchase of the land, said city manager Penny Ballem.
But the controversy over the funding seemed to be the last thing on taxpayers’ minds Saturday as they gave VANOC CEO John Furlong a rock star’s reception as he returned the village “key” back to the mayor, who in turn passed it to Millennium Development principals Shahram and Peter Malek. The media-shy Malek brothers seemed genuinely pleased at the public unveiling of the village, which received glowing reviews by athletes and the international press during the Games.
“Like every Olympian, we never doubted we’d be standing here at the finish line and, as you stand here with me, just put yourselves in our shoes for a moment and please understand how proud we are to have invited the world to be our house guests,” Peter Malek told a crowd of several hundred.
But buyers will need deep pockets to afford the suites, which boast nine-foot high ceilings, a prime location on the edge of southeast False Creek and bragging rights to one of the greenest communities in the world, with a LEED platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Prices range from the high $400,000s for a studio apartment to $10 million for a penthouse suite.
Some 263 condos were sold during pre-sales in 2007 and 474 condos remain for sale.
About half of the remaining suites were released on the market Saturday. Nine display suites were open to the public at noon, each one kitted out in designer furniture.
Marketers emphasized the green features, including green roofs installed on half of the total roof area and a water storage system that harvests storm water to be reused for toilet flushing and irrigation.
Real-estate marketing whiz Bob Rennie has been charged with selling the ritzy condos and was optimistic all the units will be sold in about two years.
“If I told you we were going to to do it in three months, I think everyone would roll their eyes back,” said Rennie.
“We have a two-year plan. I would love to under-promise and overachieve. But I think the two years takes the pressure off, no one’s going to blink, no one’s going to make a silly decision.”
He anticipated buyers would be primarily downsizing baby boomers.
Dixie Billing, 54, of Vancouver, was interested in a 1,100 square-foot penthouse with a price tag of $1.3 million. She considered the home after viewing the display centre just prior to the Olympics, but ended up purchasing in Yaletown instead.
“We got twice as much square footage for the same price and we’re on the waterfront with a 50-foot deck. If you have to look at comparisons, we got much more,” she said.
However, Billing returned to Millennium Water yesterday to look at prospective units for her sister, who lives in L.A. Despite getting a better deal and conceding she was disappointed with the quality for a $1 million-plus home, Billing said the location and amenities were excellent and her sister may still consider purchasing.
Maxim Winther, 22, seized on the opportunity to protest the decision by city council to earmark 20 per cent of the 1,100-unit development for affordable housing, down from an earlier consideration of earmarking a third of the units for affordable housing and another third for social housing.
“We’re here with a message of tragedy. This project was once going to be used as a way to deal with the city’s issues and now it’s just making it worse,” said Winther, who identified himself as a member of the grassroots group Van Act!, which is focused on affordable housing.
Winther was among 300 to 400 people who staged a protest on affordable housing outside Science World yesterday afternoon.
Around 30 protesters broke through the security fence surrounding the Olympic Village complex in an attempt to enter a building where Canadian Olympians were displaying their medals.
Police said no arrests were made.
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