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Renovation before the 2010 Winter Olympics and re-roofing afterwards.
That's the plan announced today for B.C. Place Stadium, which opened 25 years ago next month.
“We are actually doing the reverse of what we thought we would be recommending,” said B.C. Pavilion Corporation chairman David Podmore. “We did think, when we first started our analysis, that we would be recommending replacement of the roof pre-2010 and refurbishment of the interior and public areas of the building, post 2010.”
Neither Podmore nor B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell would comment on the estimated budget. Tendering will begin this fall before the first phase proceeds, pending a business plan and government approval.
Suites, seating, washrooms and concession stands will be replaced and the current roof repaired before the Winter Olympics open on Feb. 12, 2010. Structural upgrades will also be done to prepare the air-supported fabric roof to be replaced with a German-designed retractable fabric roof by 2011. Podmore said 36 masts 50 metres in length will need to be erected around the stadium to support the structure.
A news release said more than $100 million is expected from the development, sale, or lease, of lands surrounding the stadium. No other financing deals were disclosed. The latest B.C. Pavilion Corporation five-year plan contemplates $42 million in capital upgrades. Architects' renderings show Vancouver 2010 logos and colours on the renovated and re-roofed stadium, indicating the decision against going retractable before the Games was perhaps as late as this week. Podmore estimated that it would cost at least $1 billion for a comparable replacement to B.C. Place.
“This is a marvelous facility,” Podmore said. “It is very well built, it is in excellent shape, it would be very, very difficult to replace.”
The United Soccer Leagues' Vancouver Whitecaps signed a letter of intent for a five-year lease beginning in 2011. The team is bidding for a Major League Soccer franchise and seeking to build its own 15,000-seat outdoor stadium on Vancouver's central waterfront.
The big surprise was that the Vancouver Art Gallery would find a new home across Pacific Boulevard at the Plaza of Nations site owned by Canadian Metropolitan Properties. The province has already put $50 million toward a new art gallery, which was originally planned for the city's former bus depot site.
The stadium opened June 19, 1983 and cost taxpayers $126 million. The first event, a North American Soccer League game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Seattle Sounders, was a sell-out the next day.
Campbell called B.C. Place was a catalyst for urban redevelopment that turned Vancouver's core into “one of the most livable, exciting downtowns not just in North America, but in the world.”
It will be the most-watched venue of the 2010 Winter Olympics because it hosts opening, closing and nightly medals ceremonies.
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