[URBAN NOTE] "Athletes are gone, now it’s time to get village ready for residents"

[rfmcdonald]

The Canadian Press' Paola Loriggio describes in the Toronto Star the birth of a new neighbourhood.

Competitors in the summer’s Pan Am and Parapan Am Games left the athletes village weeks ago, but it will be months before residents of the new downtown Toronto neighbourhood can move in.

Pan Am crews are still tearing down temporary structures and removing 220,000 pieces of furniture and fixtures from the complex, which will then be turned over to Infrastructure Ontario and developer Dundee Kilmer at the end of the month.

A spokeswoman for the Crown corporation says the units must then be converted into the condos, affordable housing units, commercial spaces and dorm rooms that make up the mixed-use development.

Mandy Downes says only basic units were prepared for the athletes, with temporary walls serving as partitions to allow more people to stay in each unit.

She says some spaces — such as the future YMCA facility and the George Brown College residences — may need less work.