Olympic organizers have asked Whistler to look at housing more
team officials in the athletes’ village.
Eric Martin, chair of the Whistler Development Corporation
(WDC), confirmed at Saturday’s busy open house the WDC board was exploring
options to provide up to another 150 beds during the 2010 Games.
“We’d have to get compensated to do it,” he said, adding that
the WDC’s requirement is to provide just 2,050 beds.
The request comes after the International Olympic Committee
asked 2010 organizers to accommodate an extra 800-plus beds in the village for
team officials. The bulk of that request will be satisfied by temporary
accommodation in Britco housing as part of the deal for the athletes’ centre,
which is being built by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Games
(VANOC).
Mark Cutler, the Whistler athletes’ village manager of
construction for VANOC, said there are two levels of team officials and the
so-called primary team officials should be in permanent housing rather than
temporary accommodation.
If there is no room in the village, VANOC has the option to
outsource the accommodation elsewhere.
The preference, he said, is to house them in the village.
“VANOC would be compensating it,” he confirmed.
The WDC is exploring its options of creating extra rooms in
garages during Games-time. The buildings would be insulated and made
comfortable for the officials and then retrofitted to garages for sale to
Whistler employees following the Games.
Martin said: “It’s not a real stretch to do it.”
