dences, retail and commercial office space.
Vancouver, home of the upcoming 2010
Winter Olympic games, is also planning to
morph its village into a mixed-use development with restaurants, shops, and low income
and market-rate luxury accommodations. 2016
Summer Olympic games host, Rio de Janeiro,
intends to construct a replica downtown street,
complete with bars and cafes, in the heart of its
Olympic village. A detailed plan for the street
shops after the Olympics has not yet been established.
Lowenberg said it’s well worth the challenge to develop such properties because of
their potential. His company, Magellan, became
involved in the bidding process to develop the
Olympic village for Chicago, when the city was
in the rumming for hosting the 2016 Summer
Games.
“If it’s done right, it should be very successful,
and the Olympic name should lend some cache
to the development.”
ADVANCE PLANNING
To be “done right,” venue uses after the games
must be planned far in advance so they don’t
go to waste or become a burdensome cost for
residents, said Scott Beck, president and CEO of
the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“The venues built for the Olympic experience
in Salt Lake were all planned with an afterlife,”
Beck said. “If there isn’t enough forethought
given, they become quite a drain on the local
municipality that funds them.”
That advance planning gives real estate man-
agers an opportunity to determine their interest
in managing any of the post-games venues.
Experts said property managers should focus
on managing the venues after the Olympics
instead of during the Olympics, as the opportu-
nities during the games are limited because the
Olympic host committee truly runs the show.
TO FIND OUT
MORE ABOUT
VANCOUVER’S
PLANS FOR THE
2010 WINTER
OLYMPIC GAMES,
VISIT
www.
vancouver2010.
org.
