Foundations have been poured, roads have been
paved, and interest is building in the Whistler Athletes’ Village housing
project.
“We are very excited about the progress we
have made this season,” Eric Martin, chairman for the Whistler 2020 Development
Corporation, said in a release. “At this point, we are on schedule. There will
be approximately 170 townhomes available for purchase through the Whistler
Housing Authority and foundations for 60 of these as well as for the WHA rental
building are nearly complete.”
In an interview, Martin added that the project
still looks to be on budget.
“We had a board meeting in December to go over
a business plan update,” he said. “We should make amendments and reconcile the
numbers by the end of the month and then we’ll update our numbers. We’ve got a
board meeting in mid-January and then we’ll present the updated business plan
after that.
“But the preliminary numbers are looking
good.”
A significant amount of infrastructure for the
neighbourhood is now in place. Three roads within the neighbourhood have been
paved and the girders have been installed for a new bridge crossing over the
Cheakamus River. The bridge decking may be installed in the next few weeks,
depending on the weather.
The athletes’ village will be used to house up
to 2,500 athletes coaches and trainers during the 2010 Winter Olympics. After
the Games the village will become Whistler’s newest residential neighbourhood.
The village is being built on Crown land
donated by the province, adjacent to Whistler’s former landfill.
“The design of the neighbourhood was shaped by
the needs and wants of Whistler residents,” explained Martin. “People want to
be able to live close to where they work. This makes sense both from an
emotional and an environmental perspective. They also want something that fits
into the natural landscape, so our designers and architects have used natural
materials with a contemporary focus.”
In total, approximately 240 units —
townhomes and condominiums — will be available through the Whistler
Housing Authority. Whistler employees who want to find out more about the
development can sign up to receive regular updates by visiting the website at
www.whistlerdevelopmentcorp.ca. There is also information about how to sign up
for the Whistler Housing Authority waiting list.
In March 2008, Whistler 2020 Development
Corporation will host a Community Open House where anyone who is interested can
see plans and designs for the neighbourhood.
Martin said another building in the athletes’
village has recently been reviewed by the municipality’s advisory design panel
and four others should go to the design panel in the next couple of months. He
estimated 80 per cent of all units should be “in the ground” next summer.
The Whistler 2020 Development Corporation is a
wholly owned subsidiary of the Resort Municipality of Whistler, created to
facilitate the delivery of the $131 million Whistler Athletes’ Village for the
2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
The athletes’ centre, which will include a
high-performance gymnasium, a lodge and townhouses accommodating a total of 350
people, is a separate project being financed and built by VANOC. The most
recent estimate for the athletes’ centre, released in October, was $46 million.
