Second chance by default.

So, in business there’s typically no second chance. You either succeed or fail, and regaining trust, funds and the will to take the same risk again, is usually frowned upon. Especially when we start talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

This really doesn’t apply I suppose, when it comes to tax payer’s dollars.

The Village on False Creek (courtesy of http://www.vancouversun.com/business/2614051.bin?size=620x400)

People in Vancouver still seem to be hyped about the 2010 Winter Olympics that swept by us last year. It really made an impact to Canada’s culture and sense of unity, but the biggest impact was not in terms of warm fuzzy feelings, but cold, hard cash. The biggest failure seems to be the Olympic Village condos that cost taxpayers $742.6 million.

Now, they’re going for their second chance at getting these condos occupied, but they’re also going at their second attempt to market these condos, and the whole area surrounding it as well.

Originally called “Millenium Waters”, the marketers started by simply changing it to “The Village on False Creek”. They’ve also slashed prices by about a third, and people seem to finally notice that a whole new neighbourhood is about to develop. Studying marketing, it seems hard enough to effectively market consumer products, but I can just imagine how hard it is to market an entire condominium complex AND a prospective neighbourhood. On top of that, they’re having to reposition everything and erase the words “failure” from the images of Vancouverites. Hopefully they succeed in making “The Village on False Creek” somewhere attractive as Yaletown and Kitsilano, since it’s really us taxpayers desperately holding onto the short end of the stick.

Source: The Vancouver Sun