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A village in the heart of a city

Short list of developers launches City of Vancouver on path to athletes village

With a short-list of developers drawn up and site-preparation underway the City of Vancouver is well on its way to providing its athletes village for the 2010 Winter Games.

Like Whistler it has faced challenges in incorporating sustainable goals within the plans and the tight timeline has had planners at their desks late into the night, but so far the project is on track to be completed in 2009 as promised.

"We are on a schedule that just doesn’t bend," said Jody Andrews, project manager for the Southeast False Creek and Olympic Village project for the City of Vancouver.

"And we have set very high sustainability objectives and that is certainly a challenge for us and the design team and it will certainly be a challenge for the developer as well just to change so much while building."

The village will be built on city-owned land in southeast False Creek. It will be the first phase of a wide-ranging development that will see up to 15,000 people live in the general area in the next 20 years.

The village will offer cafes, hairdressers, a gym, a movie theatre, and even a convenience store – everything the 3,000 athletes and officials could need to survive without leaving the area.

But the unique site of the Vancouver athletes village, smack dab in the middle of downtown, will likely mean everyone housed there will head out and explore.

"It is right in the heart of the city, which is quite unusual for an Olympic Village," said Terry Wright, the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s senior vice president Olympic Planning. "And it is on the ocean in a very stunning setting so we begin with some huge pluses.

"My experience has been that the entertainment facilities in the village are more lightly used than you would expect because they actually want to get out into the city they are living in and this location is going to be quite amazing for that."

VANOC, which is contributing $30 million to the project, is yet to invite businesses to apply to provide village services but Wright doesn’t expect there will be any problem.

"There is always great interest," he said.

The Vancouver athletes village will be built on land that has been used by industry for over 100 years. The development, which is embracing sustainability at every level, promises to magically transform the area from a frightening Halloween pumpkin to a ball-gown community.

"The site itself is a brownfield site, quite contaminated," said Andrews. "It’s been used for industrial uses for the last century and the city wants to convert that to a healthy community that would house families and provide a wide range of accommodation, right from affordable housing to modest market housing to market range housing. It will be a showcase of a new model community and the Olympic village is really the first phase of that development."

The area encompasses about 80 acres. The city owns 50 of those acres. The athletes village community will be built on roughly 15 acres clustered around the waterfront.

There are two zones to both the Vancouver and Whistler athlete villages: the international and the residential. The international zone offers a place for athletes to gather and meet media and dignitaries, attend special functions and access services. The residential zone is strictly for athletes and officials.

"That area is fundamentally to protect the athletes’ privacy and to allow them to have quieter space to retreat to in preparation," said Wright. "Security is certainly part of it but part of it is creating that environment where they actually go and focus and can sleep and can have a minimum of distraction."

Although it is early days in the planning phase it is expected that the residential area will form the key components of the legacy community in Vancouver, while the international zone and its various services will likely be housed in some temporary facilities.

The city is budgeting $58 million to get the entire 50-acre city-owned site serviced and ready to go. That work is underway and is funded, as is the entire project, out of the City of Vancouver’s Property Endowment Fund.

The public parks, landscaping and amenities, such as the new community centre, will cost the city $158 million.

Roughly 600 units will become available after the Games for housing, with one third affordable, one third modest market housing, and one third market housing. Currently construction is set at an average of $250/square foot.

Whistler planners are estimating that their athletes village will come in at about $240/square foot.

Vancouver is seeking funding from the province for the affordable housing component.

The city has a short list of developers for the athletes village but it will likely be a year before a contract is awarded. Development proposals will be evaluated on the basis of a triple bottom line: economic, social and environmental sustainability.

The developer, which will make its profit from selling the market housing, will be responsible for the design and construction of all housing and amenities. The land for the market and modest market housing will be sold to the developer, or offered as a 99-year lease, but the city will retain ownership of the affordable housing and the land it is on.

Building construction is expected to start in early 2007.

"I anticipate the market units here will be quite desirable," said Andrews.

"Not only will they be in the city’s most sustainable community but they will also be associated with the 2010 Olympics. They will be the units the athletes stayed in, including the ones who won the gold medals, and that will probably have some very strong marketable appeal to people."

Andrews expects the sustainability of the community will also appeal to people. For example the city plans to do all irrigation in the project with collected storm and rain water, use reclaimed heat from the sewer system for energy, and reintroduce some fish species on an inter-tidal island built as part of the project.

"The city’s vision of the project is to build a showcase of sustainable development – that is really the shinning point of the development," he said.

The long-term Vancouver legacy community will encompass;

• mixed housing;

• a community heat system with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions;

• innovative and sustainable storm water management;

• community gardens;

• local serving streets;

• greenways and bikeways;

• high transit access;

• park space and foreshore walkway totaling 26 acres;

• a community centre and non-motorized boating facility;

• a school for kindergarten to Grade 7;

• childcare and daycare facilities;

• restoration of key heritage buildings; and

• an interfaith spiritual centre.