It's a Crown corporation with two big palaces in downtown Vancouver, just a few kilometres apart, and it's undergoing change.
But will the BC Pavilion Corp., which benefited from $1.3 billion of taxpayer-funded construction, be transformed from a money-loser to a moneymaker?
Chief executive Warren Buckley left at the end of July. Chairman David Podmore is going this month. Rich Coleman took over from Pat Bell as minister responsible on September 5 in Premier Christy Clark's cabinet shuffle.
An August board shuffle filled several vacancies, particularly the seats left vacant in February by the quiet resignations of directors Peter Brown and Derek Brindle after then-minister Pat Bell and then-finance minister Kevin Falcon scuttled the $35 million to $40 million, Telus Park naming rights deal for BC Place.
In came ex-Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe, failed Vancouver NPA mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton, former Prince George councillor Don Zurowski and ski resort executives Stuart McLaughlin and Michael Ballingall. But the biggest move was on August 1 when, without any apparent job posting, PavCo deputy minister Dana Hayden became Buckley's replacement.
The veteran mandarin, who has degrees in forest science, economics and securities, is no stranger to being airlifted into a Crown corporation's hot seat. While Premier Gordon Campbell's deputy in 2007, she was seconded to BC Lottery Corp. (BCLC) after the board fired Vic Poleschuk in the wake of the Ombudsman's damning report on the integrity of B.C.'s lottery system.
At BCLC, her job was deemed "interim." That doesn't appear under her name with PavCo, suggesting that she might be in the chair long enough to make changes if Coleman and the board give her the freedom.
In the February-published service plan, PavCo forecast $10.224 million in operational losses over the next three fiscal years at the convention centre, but a whopping $49.002 million in red ink at the stadium. This, after the renovation that PavCo says cost $514 million.
Outgoing chairman Podmore pats himself on the back for bringing it in $49 million under budget but neglects to mention that the job was supposed to cost much less – $365 million, to be exact – when the budget was announced in January 2009.
The Vancouver Whitecaps and BC Lions were given offers they couldn't refuse after their owners went public with expensive concepts of their own. Whitecaps principal owner Greg Kerfoot was prepared to build a $60 million outdoor stadium north of Gastown, though Port Metro Vancouver was not keen. Before the stadium got a new lease on life with Vancouver's Olympic bid won in 2003, Lions owner David Braley said he would buy the building to save it from the condo lobby.
PavCo refuses to disclose what, if any, rent either franchise pays in the renovated building.
Podmore was appointed by Campbell to be PavCo's Mr. Fix-it in the spring of 2007, when the convention centre's $495 million budget had ballooned to $880 million.
A pre-Olympic renovation to install the retractable roof was postponed (an estimated January 31, 2010 completion would have been less than two weeks before the opening ceremony), so the existing roof got band-aid repairs to keep it from falling at Games time.
Podmore reorganized the convention centre project and got it back on track. The summer 2008 opening was delayed to spring 2009.
The biggest controversy remaining at the Coal Harbour hall with the grassy roof is Harbour Air's reluctance to move to the $22 million Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, a joint venture by PavCo and Ledcor.
Many questions remain about the stadium, however. Only one post-renovation event, the 2011 Grey Cup, was a sellout.
Crews have scrambled on sunny summer days to replace and repair sections of the sometimes leaky fabric roof that was stained by grease drips from the steel cables. Cable installer Freyssinet and steel contractor Canam are gearing up for an October 2013 civil trial.
Freyssinet wants $6.5 million; Canam countersued for $26.15 million.
Troubles with the Terracover plastic floor tile system caused havoc during the lucrative trade show season in February and March and meant a July 1 electronic music concert couldn't happen.
The name will remain BC Place, but will Paragon Gaming build a scaled-down version of the hotel/casino complex that city council rejected in April 2011? PavCo was counting on the lease revenue to pay back a $150 million government loan.
