Lo and behold : the $100M Olympic Village bail-out

In a secret meeting on October 14, Vancouver council voted unanimously to lend $100-million for cost over-runs to Millennium Development, the private corporation building the $1.1-billion 2010 Olympic Village.

Vancouver's Director of Finance, Estelle Lo, who reportedly had concerns about the city's involvement in the Olympic athletes' village and who was stripped of her control over financing decisions related to the athletes' village in April, was not at that meeting.
Ms Lo reportedly resigned on Oct 29.
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That's quite a lot of "reportedly"s and still no word from the city.
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Millenium is also leaking a $65-million cost overrun on its 176 unit Evelyn Drive project above Park Royal in West Van and in danger of default on a 170 room hotel contract in Nanaimo.
h/t Bill Tieleman
One of Millenium's backers is private-equity and hedge-fund manager Fortress Investment Group.
G&M :

"Donald Trump is tied up in a legal fight over a Chicago skyscraper that is now worth less at completion than the total value of the loans it took to build it. The shortfall is about $100-million. Interestingly, one of the lenders in this case is Fortress Investment Group, the primary lender in the athletes' village project."

Well we can always sell' em off, right? Right?
G&M :

"It is hard to make the athletes' village deal make sense no matter which way you slice it.
If the loan from Fortress is $750-million and you add, potentially, $100-million to cover cost overruns, and then another $193-million for the cost of the land, then you're looking at total costs of more than $1-billion. That means the 1,100 units in the residential complex that was once the athletes' village would have to average $1-million each.
In this market, it's not going to happen."

Interesting you should mention that, because over in the UK :

"Government ministers have delayed a taxpayer bail-out for the £1bn athletes' village at the London 2012 Olympics until the beginning of next year at the earliest.
The scheme hit trouble when the developer Lend Lease could not raise finance and the possible resale value of the flats slumped. Also at the meeting was John Armitt, the Olympic Delivery Authority chairman, who has said taxpayers might have to bail out the entire £1bn cost."

But that couldn't happen here? Right?

Ross has a half dozen excellent detailed posts up on this.
Keep scrolling.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Wednesday night update : G&M :

"Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan asked the police Wednesday to investigate the "theft" of documents from city hall that revealed that city council had authorized a loan of up to $100-million to the financially strapped developer of the 2010 Olympics athletes village."

Yeah, Sammy, coz it's the leak that's the most important issue here.