To the editor:
Re: “Anatomy of a deal: the sale of Vancouver’s Olympic Village,” Oct. 10
I read with keen interest your recent article on the Olympic Village fiasco (let’s call it what it is) and was surprised to see no mention of the U.S. investment firm Fortress Capital.
They were the financial backers of the project that promptly bailed on their commitments following the global banking crisis of 2009. They left developer Millennium in the lurch, while the City of Vancouver had no choice but to underwrite the billion dollar project if we wanted to be sure it was completed in time for the winter of 2010.
I’m not privy to the arrangement the city had with the developer, but it seems to me there ought to have been some recourse taken against Fortress, then based in New York. Now Vancouver taxpayers are on the hook for an estimated $100 million in losses as a result. All I can say is I hope the city learnt it’s lesson and does its due diligence in any future mega-projects involving city-owned land or property.
Charles Leduc,
Vancouver
