DAMIAN INWOOD
Province
Coun. Geoff Meggs sits Thursday in one of the suites in the Olympic athletes village on False Creek. Photograph by: Jon Murray, the Province, Staff reporter
While Olympic athletes will be staying in luxury False Creek condos worth as much $5 million next year, they won’t get to play with the high-end kitchen appliances.
Some of the frills that the units will eventually boast have been put on hold for now, Coun. Geoff
Meggs said Thursday.
“All the kitchen appliances are in, but they’ve been walled off with very sturdy wheatboard enclosures, so it would be very difficult to damage them,” said Meggs, who oversees the Olympic file.
“The athletes don’t need to cook, because they’ll be eating cafeteria-style.”
Meggs said the handover to VANOC, the 2010 organizing committee, of the 1,100 suites at the False Creek athletes village has already begun. By tonight, 215 of the suites will have been signed over.
“It’s a phased handover, so as rooms are finished, VANOC goes in and checks them over and, if they’re acceptable, they lock them off,” he said. “As they go through, they sign off and say, ‘Yes, we’ll take it.’
“So the handover’s already started, but it has to be completed by November — and it will be.”
Construction crews “have closed the gap” on deadlines, he said.
Some design features have been modified or postponed until after the Games, he added.
“Some of the plaster trim and fussy stuff like that is going to be done later,” he said.
Temporary carpet tiles will be laid for the athletes and then replaced with hardwood floors. The tiles will be recycled at city facilities.
Sponsors such as RONA will be providing furniture, which will be taken out after the athletes leave.
“The community centre won’t be completed to the level that was at first envisaged, but to a level that VANOC’s satisfied with,” he said.
VANOC is paying $30 million to use the $1-billion development — 1.5 million square feet on 4.5 hectares — to house 2,800 athletes and officials during the Games.
“At a certain point in November, they’ll seal the site off and it’s VANOC’s to do what they like with,” Meggs said.
“They have to put in security and lay in all kinds of other things like cooking, logistics and transportation.” [email protected]
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