A post-Olympics Vancouver region will enjoy an extensive legacy of new and improved infrastructure. By Allan Lynch, March/April 2009

The Fairmont Waterfront

While the world’s attention is on Vancouver and the Lower BC Mainland for the Olympic and Paralymic Games, Richard Yore, director of group sales for Tourism Vancouver, says it’s important to remember that these two events only occupy 25 days out of the 2010 calendar. After these games, this region will be left with a rich legacy of new and improved venues, transportation systems and accommodations.

Hosting the Games has proven to be a type of a pre-stimulus package that insulated the Lower Mainland against much of the economic roller coaster. Sue Roberts, managing director of Congress World Conferences Inc., who handles a dozen international association and medical meetings a year, says, “If you don’t read the papers or watch the media, you wouldn’t know there’s economic trouble in parts of Vancouver. I was talking to a property management company in Whistler and they’re suffering. We (in Vancouver) have not seen the downturn as badly. We’re in a little bubble here at the moment because of the Olympics.

The bubble is due to the infrastructure developments and salaries, plus a steady supply of officials, athletes, spectators and media who have already booked 60,000 room nights attending the nine world cup competitions leading up to the Games. The tangible legacy of the Games could reach $6-billion-plus in public spending on venues, infrastructure and facilities, like the $880-million addition to the Vancouver Convention Centre, which will be the media centre for the Games. This is supplemented by another billion dollars in private-sector spending.

Naturally, with any large-scale public spending, there is a lot of negative news, but Jack Tillar, general manager of TBA Global Canada, thinks it’s unfair. “We are so negative as a people. I don’t know if it’s been done, I haven’t seen one, if someone would do an honest ROI on what the Olympics cost us and three years later, say, this is where we are,” and factor in “all the people who worked building the infrastructure and the extra money we pumped into the economy, I believe Vancouver will do well.”

There are three host communities for the Games. In spite of their name, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games are actually being held and co-hosted by three communities: Vancouver, Whistler and Richmond.

DRESSED UP VANCOUVER…
The biggest new investment in the city is the expansion of the harbourside Vancouver Convention Centre. The new, carbon-neutral expansion, opened in April, has a six-acre grass roof and offers over 223,000 sq. ft. of additional exhibition halls with dedicated loading bays, a stunning glass-walled 55,000-sq.-ft. ballroom capable of hosting 6,000 at a banquet (9,900 for a reception) and 52 additional meeting rooms. The original convention centre has 133,000 sq. ft. of space, including 91,000 sq. ft. of exhibition halls and a 16,600-sq.-ft. dividable ballroom and 20 breakout rooms.

Supporting the centre is a cluster of new and existing hotels. The refurbished 503-room Pan Pacific Hotel, which has 42,000 sq. ft, of meeting space, sits on top of the original convention centre. Across the street is the 489-room Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, and a new, $200-million, 415-room Fairmont Pacific Rim. At the far end of the new expansion is the 438-room Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside.

Among the other notable developments on the Vancouver hotel scene is a complete, $25-million refurbishment of the 372-room Four Seasons Hotel; the return of the St. Regis Hotel after an $11-million, 14-month renovation of the 1913 property; completion of a $24-million renovation of the Westin Bayshore; as well as several exciting new-builds: 77-room Loden Vancouver Hotel, 60-room L’Hermitage Hotel and the $300-miliion Shangri-La complex, which includes a 119-room luxury hotel.

Cypress Mountain has spent $40-million to improve facilities, which include the addition of a 48,000-sq.-ft. lodge. UBC has built the $47.8-million Thunderbird Arena, available for hire, and the $88-million Vancouver Olympic Paralympic Centre is a sporting and recreational facility which will be re-configured after the Games as a community centre.

…AND RICHMOND
The city of Richmond is home to more than 180,000 people. It’s an interesting option for groups, because it is off most people’s radar. This community, with 4,500 bedrooms and 135,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, is ideally suited to active groups. For example, Richmond has 80 km of cycling trails. Without leaving the community, visitors can see eagles and otters and go whale watching from the quaint little fishing port of Steveston, with streets lined by specialty shops, cafes and restaurants, a marina and a National Historic Site, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, that is popular for receptions and dinners.

Richmond also offers the John MS Lecky UBC Boat House, a glass pavilion on the shore of the Fraser River, which can host 190, and the BC Federation of Sports’ facilities’ five fully-wired, light-filled meeting rooms.

The biggest addition to the community is the Richmond Olympic Oval, a $178-million, green, multi-purpose sporting facility built to host the Olympic speed-skating competitions. The 343,000-sq.-ft. Oval has room for two NHL-sized ice surfaces at one end, plus space for eight basketball courts and a 200-metre running track and 8,000 spectators, plus restaurants, fitness facilities, clinics, meeting space and outdoor river-side event venues.

On the accommodation side, the hotel collection includes the 185-room Radisson Hotel Vancouver Airport, which has just undergone an $8-million renovation. The 390-room Best Western, next to the Marriott, re-flags in May as a Sheraton. Since this property shares ownership with the Marriott, planners can work with both properties and have everything placed on one master account. Other Richmond properties include a 200-room Westin Hotel, opening in January, 2010; the 237-room Hilton Vancouver Airport; the 415-room Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel set on 7.5 acres of waterfront property which has 16,500 sq. ft. of conference space; and the 392-room Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel.

— Allan Lynch is a New Minas, N.S.-based freelance writer.