Toronto is to get another landmark. The International Olympic Committee, along with the Canadian Olympic Association and California’s Landmark Entertainment are collaborating in a $34 million, 50,000 square foot facility that will house an office for the International Olympic Committee.
It’s the first-ever North American office for the International Olympic Committee.
The development will be a tribute to Olympic heroes and Olympic sport and will also be a centre for community activities.
A source familiar with the plan told the Toronto Star that having a permanent IOC presence established in Toronto is small consideration for losing the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing, but having the North American office in Toronto certainly can’t hurt the city. The source said, “I think it’s good news for Toronto. If Toronto is ever in a position to bid again for the Olympics, (there’s been talk of a Toronto 2012 bid), it would probably help having the office here. It shows we’re taken seriously by the IOC, not that we ever thought we weren’t”.
“The IOC has banned its members from visiting bid cities, but if there’s an office here it would be a natural place for members to stop in for meetings”, said another source. “It would be a meeting place for international sports federations as well”.
Reports say the IOC and the COA would each have an office in the Dundas Square project, a massive redevelopment slated for the east side of Yonge Street and Dundas Street in downtown Toronto.
The IOC has public relations people and lawyers in the U.S. but no formal office. The Toronto branch is expected to be home for only a handful of employees of the IOC.
The development is scheduled to open in the fall of 2003.
