Tuesday, November 28, 2001

Olympic Spirit Centre put in game plan
Offerings to include cinema in round, interactive displays

By Steven Theobald - Toronto Star

Toronto may have lost out on the 2008 summer Olympics, but a local developer is hoping the city's spirit lives on. PenEquity Management Corp. is building the world's first "Olympic Spirit" centre on the southeast corner of Dundas and Victoria Sts., the company said yesterday. The $32 million facility, fully sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee, is a combination of museum and theme park and will include a 360-degree cinema, interactive games simulating Olympic sports and loads of displays highlighting key moments in Games history.

About 60 per cent of the displays will focus on international athletes and 40 per cent on homegrown talent.

On the interactive side, simulators will allow people to run the 100-metre dash against the world's fastest sprinters, said Gary Goddard, chairman of California-based Landmark Entertainment Group, which is creating the interactive components.

Another ride will put visitors in the driver's seat of a fully tilting bobsled.

The attractions will change constantly to keep things fresh, Goddard promised.

"We see this attraction depending very much on the local population coming back again and again."

PenEquity said it expects 550,000 visits a year to the 50,000-square-foot complex, slated for completion in the fall of 2003. Adult admission is expected to be around $18.

Canada's financially challenged Olympic athletes will benefit from the project through royalty fees.

"The Canadian Olympic Association got into the project because it will be a significant source of funding," association president Michael Chambers said at yesterday's news conference. "It's not going to turn the ship around, but it'll help us."

Toronto will be the first of many locations around the world, thanks to "rising consumer interest in the Olympics," said Markus Jerger, chairman of the Olympic Spirit Group, which controls the global licensing rights. "We hope in 10 years we have five to 10 sites."

Olympic Spirit Toronto anchors the Torch on Dundas project, which features a 50-metre media tower topped with an Olympic flame.

Bob (son of Sam the Record Man) Sniderman, who is partnered with PenEquity on the project, said the torch theme was decided on well before the Olympic link was formed.

"Call it destiny," said Sniderman, whose Senator restaurant sits next to the Torch site.

The project is the final major element in the regeneration plans for the Yonge and Dundas area, a process that has taken years longer than expected because of problems finding tenants willing to pay the high rents the area now demands. The Torch, for instance, was originally scheduled to be up and running by last spring.

Delays in securing tenants also plagued PenEquity's other project, the Metropolis cinema and entertainment complex on the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas Sts.

After months of talks, PenEquity finally signed the last Metropolis tenant, a Virgin MegaStore.

"Good things come to those who are patient enough," said a clearly relieved Glenn Miller, chief executive of Toronto-based PenEquity.

All the key elements of the Yonge-Dundas regeneration plan overlook the public square on the southeast corner.

The square is nearing completion, noted Toronto Councillor Kyle Rae, who spearheaded the regeneration project.

Also overlooking the square is the renovated Hard Rock Café, which relaunched Monday.

Builders are preparing to install seven large signs, including a $1.5 million, 6.4-metre by 8.5-metre video screen on the roof of the building facing the square.

"We are flying it in right now from Hong Kong," said Danny Starnino, owner of Skye Media Inc.

Starnino originally wanted to put up an even bigger video screen but city planners stepped in.

"They found that in the month of September, around noon, the sun would have cast shadows on part of the southern end of the square."

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