The Athletes’ Village for the Pan American and ParaPan American Games in Toronto had two objectives.
First, it was to provide temporary residences for the athletes, staff and coaches involved in the Pan Am Games. Second, it was to serve the needs of future residents with a mixture of affordable housing and community spaces. As the facilities would have mixed purpose and multiple stake holders, the design, construction and management of the Athletes’ Village were overseen by different partners at different times. The joint management of the facilities, between Infrastructure Ontario (a provincial government agency) and Toronto 2015 (the organising committee for the Games), allowed it to both serve the needs of the international sporting event and residents.
In the construction phase, the project used a design-build-finance delivery mode. Infrastructure Ontario, the owner, worked with several private partners to deliver the facilities. For the purposes of the Pan Am Games, temporary infrastructure was designed and constructed under the supervision of Toronto 2015.
During the period of the Pan Am Games (the ‘Operational Period’) private partners remained involved. They were responsible for building management and maintenance, along with maintenance of the roads and grounds within the site. Following the end of the Operational Period, the facilities were turned over to Infrastructure Ontario, which repurposed the Village to serve the long-term residential population. This included the creation of a community centre and sports facility, a student housing complex and 253 affordable rental units. The decision to use the site for the Village expedited the area’s redevelopment by five to 10 years.
Source: Global Infrastructure Hub, Office of the Auditor General of Ontario
