2010 Olympic Village - Funding Crisis

Funding Crisis

On Thursday, 15 January 2009 Jody Andrews, the deputy city manager overseeing construction of the Olympic Village, resigned. Vancouver city manager, Penny Ballem, was quoted as saying there was no reason for the public to lose confidence in City Hall over the resignation.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson made a request to the British Columbia provincial government to allow the City of Vancouver to borrow additional funds to complete the project. On Sunday, 18 January 2009 an emergency meeting convened by the BC Legislature approved Bill 47, allowing the City of Vancouver unlimited access to additional funds for the development of the Olympic Village. The estimated new total cost is CAN$1 billion to build VVL, approximately CAN$ 467 million dollars were required by the City of Vancouver to complete the project. The project ran into financial woes late last year as well as the lender, Fortress Investment Group, a New York hedge fund, stopped payments to the developer, Millennium Development Group. Bill 47 is an unusual amendment to the charter for the Olympics in that it changes the original requirement that all additional borrowing is prohibited without a public referendum, and also that it was until this legislation was passed that it was illegal for the City of Vancouver to pursue such financial dealings. The city, in order to meet its Olympics commitments, required extraordinary legislative proceedings to amend the city's charter to allow it to borrow to buy out the loan from Fortress.

As of January 2011, the village's developer failed to make loan repayments and the City of Vancouver placed the property in receivership. Of the 737 apartments for sale in the development, only half had been purchased at that time.