A long-mothballed $61 million sports medicine clinic in Burnaby has a new name and a new proposed opening date of spring 2013.
Amid the 2008 credit crunch, the centre's developers, the Fortius Foundation, temporarily shut down construction of the 148,000-square-foot venue partly because of the high price of construction materials in the lead-up to the 2010 Olympics.
The newly named Fortius Sport & Health centre will be the first fully integrated sports medicine, science and training venture in Canada. It will represent a new integrative model for bringing together expertise, programs and services in sports medicine, sport science and sport training.
The centre's original budget was $65 million, and Business in Vancouver reported last year that developers thought that the final budget could be brought as low as $54 million.
What's most notable about the centre's financing is that it comes partly thanks to a $23 million donation from Scott Cousens, director of capital markets at Hunter Dickinson Inc.
The centre is near the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex. At the heart of its Fortius Athlete Development Centre will be the Fortius Institute, which will employ an integrated team of sports medicine, science and training leaders who will conduct research and activities aimed at preventing injuries, enhancing performance, treating injuries and educating athletes.
