The city will recover any financial investment it makes towards the Olympic Village before Millennium Development does, a Vision Vancouver councillor said.

Newly elected councillor Geoff Meggs told The Tyee yesterday that Vancouver is effectively the developer of the village, thanks to an in-camera council decision in June 2007. Although not all the details of that meeting are known, the decision provided a “completion guarantee” to the project’s financier, Fortress Investment, which made the city financially responsible for delivering the village.

“We’re on the hook for this project, good or bad,” Meggs said.

But though he wouldn’t go into the details of the financial arrangement between the city and Millennium, the project’s builder, Meggs suggested Vancouver taxpayers won’t be hung out to dry if condo sales turn a profit.

“At this point the city will get its money out before Millennium does,” he said. “It’s not like the city is left with the leftovers. If the project is making money, the city will be making money.”

So far, 265 out of 737 high-end condos have been presold, according to Bob Rennie, owner of Rennie Marketing Systems, the company responsible for selling the units.

He added that current presales have been for mostly lower-value properties and plans are to sell higher value waterfront units at a later date.

“We never intended to have the village sold out in 2010,” Rennie said. “It was always going to be phased.”

Despite the city’s obligation to complete the athletes’ village by next November, Rennie said it’s highly unlikely that taxpayers will have to cough up the full cost of the project.

“To lose $875 million, [the city] would have to build the village and sell it for zero,” he said, adding that such is a scenario is unlikely, given that the development sits on a prime waterfront location. “It’s very valuable real estate.”

A local real estate analyst said it’s difficult to estimate how much money the remaining condo units could generate. The analyst said the value of the units depends on how prices are set, how much money is owed on the project, and whether Vancouver’s currently depressed housing market can recover by 2010.

Non-Partisan Association councillor Suzanne Anton said yesterday the city will have to decide in 2010 whether remaining condo units are sold right after the Olympics or are held until a later date. Market conditions at the time will determine which strategy prevails, she said.

Anton was cautiously optimistic about the project’s financial outcome.

“There is an asset there which will be sold by the end of the day,” Anton said. “The best-case scenario is there will be money in the bank at the end of it.”

Geoff Dembicki is a staff reporter for The Hook.