Nearly three months after Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics, locals got their first chance to look, over the weekend, inside the Athletes' Village built for the Games - and bought 31 units on the opening day of sales.
Rebranded as Millennium Water, the seven-city-block project is the first development of significance located in the Southeast False Creek district. The former industrial area overlooks the water and towards the downtown core and the high-rise towers built on the coastal city's old Expo lands.
After selling 263 units in pre-sales before the February Games, Saturday's launch to sell the remaining 474 flats took on a circus-like atmosphere on a scorching day in the Canadian city. Among those taking in the festivities were various Olympic athletes, former Games' volunteers, local dignitaries, a brass band, and homeless activists voicing their displeasure at the cuts to the social housing originally promised for the site.
The site does, however, include 252 additional units of social housing for pensioners, 'essential' municipal workers, and low-income residents, and the property's developer, Millennium Development, also has 120 rental units.
Their well-heeled neighbours will undoubtedly be the city's elite, those that can pay C$469,000 (HK$3.53 million) for a 575 square foot one-bedroom unit, the smallest on display on Saturday. Other units viewed included an impressive 1,140 sq ft two-bedroom apartment with a flex space on the extended balcony overlooking the water for C$1.29 million; and an 812 sq ft one-bedroom unit with an enclosed balcony.
All the units had decors big on earth-tone colours, nine-foot ceilings and open kitchens with industrial-sized sinks and kitchen islands.
