Olympic village on shaky ground from start

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The essential error that led to the Olympic Athletes’ Village debacle was made in April 2006, when city staff recommended that council select Millennium Properties Ltd. as the developer.

A 12-page staff report, authored by deputy city manager Jody Andrews, said Millennium’s proposal met or exceeded all the requirements of the official development plan.

The report also said Millennium had offered a “guaranteed, unconditional price” of $193 million for the 17-acre tract of city-owned land on False Creek, the highest of all bids, and did not require the city “to assume any of the marketing or financing risk in the development.”

But the report provided no details on how Millennium was going to finance the $750 million in projected construction costs.

Source: vancouversun.com