SEFC & Olympic Village
During the 2010 Winter Games, the City’s Southeast False Creek (SEFC) and Millenium Water development was the site for the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Village, housing over 2,800 athletes and officials during the Games.
Once a former industrial brownfield site, it is now a sustainable neighbourhood with its own neighbourhood energy utility (NEU)—an environmentally-friendly community energy system that provides space heating and domestic hot water to all new buildings in Southeast False Creek (SEFC) using sewage waste heat recovery technology. The SEFC development also has a minimum LEED Gold certification, and LEED Platinum certification for its community centre and Net Zero affordable housing building.
During the Games, the SEFC development’s most recognizable building, the heritage Salt Building, was converted into a social gathering place for the athletes. The Salt Building is a significant landmark in the Southeast False Creek neighborhood. It was built around 1930 to refine raw salt and converted in the 1980s as a paper recycling plant. After the Games, it is expected that it will be a bakery, coffee shop, restaurant and brewpub.
The Village was returned back to the City on April 7, 2010, and will eventually become home to up to 16,000 people. In its first phase, it will have 252 affordable housing units, a 45,000 square foot community centre, a 69 space daycare in the community centre, a public plaza, and much more.
