It wasn't a key to the city and it was three days late, but John Furlong had no complaints.
Mayor Gregor Robertson gave the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics' boss control of the Vancouver Olympic Village Wednesday to celebrate the 100-day countdown to the Games.
"Gosh, I wish I was an athlete again," said Furlong, a former Gaelic football, basketball and handball player. "I wish I was one of the athletes coming to the Games to be able to be in those rooms and look out on that view and feel the magic that has been performed on this site."
The $1.1 billion, 1,100-suite village opens Jan. 29 for 2,730 athletes and officials from 80 countries. It will include a temporary polyclinic, chapel, Internet cafes, post office, general store, McDonald's and Royal Bank. The 70-year-old "red shed" Salt Building will be the athletes' "living room" behind the international zone.
While VANOC moves in, workers continue to apply finishing touches to the eight city-block Southeast False Creek site until Dec. 4 when parcel five is scheduled for handover.
Robertson was elected almost a year ago after the previous NPA-majority council bailed-out developer Millennium with a secret $100 million loan.
"It's been very rewarding to go from a challenging place a year ago where people had lots of questions and uncertainties and concerns to a village that's just about finished," Robertson said.
Marketing agent Bob Rennie said 263 of the 737 market units have been sold.
Sales resume with a May 8 open house. The development is promoted as the continent's most sustainable neighbourhood with various water consumption and energy saving measures.
"The same way that we all, as consumers, compare maintenance fees to maintenance fees from building to building throughout any city, we're going to start comparing energy costs," Rennie said.
