Olympic gold in math

By Darren Atwater

Tuesday January 13, 2009

Former Vancouver mayor Philip Owen says that the current city council is misrepresenting the Olympic Village “as a loss for the city” because Vancouver is now funding the $875m project rather than the sainted private sector.

“That might be true if the land and the 850 units, when finished, are worth nothing,” Owen said. “The spin is just absolutely ridiculous. We need to have some reality from city hall.”

“At the end, we’re going to have 800-odd condominium units on 17 acres of land on a beautiful waterfront area of Vancouver. That’s gotta be worth something,” [CBC]

Let’s see now. $875 million divided by 850 units = $1,029,411 selling price per unit. Even in Vancouver, that’s a little pricey. At the more common (but still ridiculous) selling price of $600,000, it would result in a $365 million shortfall.

And don’t forget, the former council dumped most of the affordable housing requirements. This is just a straight subsidy for well-off people.