Vladimir Putin showed Interros construction sites to IOC chairman.
Russian President Vladimir Putin laid the cornerstone for an international sports management school in Sochi as he visited this Black Sea resort to inspect sites under construction for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
The sports management school, known officially as the Russian International Olympic University (RIOU), is just one of several projects bankrolled and managed by the investment company Interros.
Interros chief Vladimir Potanin said the challenge of building 130,000 square meters within a space of just two to three years was like setting an Olympic record. He is likely to be placed in charge of all Olympic-related construction in Sochi, but has so far refused to comment on the possibility.
The Olympic university will cost an estimated $500 million, with $150 million provided from Interros' own coffers and the remaining $350 million offered as a loan from Sberbank. The loan will be secured by the real property built, but the interest rate remains undisclosed.
"A rather typical distribution of risk for the Sochi Olympics," commented Potanin. He explained that in the long run, the ambition was to turn RIOU into a kind of Russian sports Harvard for raising Olympic managerial talent.
According to Potanin, the Olympic university will be large enough to accommodate about 500 students and a teaching staff of 150.
The project has been designed as a compound, which, along with several university buildings (to cost an estimated $150 million), will also include waterfront hotels and apartment blocks for rent and purchase.
"Interros bought the land with another project in mind, but we then decided to give up that project due to the economic downturn," Potanin said. "Later on, the idea of an Olympic university emerged. We will try to solve two problems at once here, as Sochi badly needs modern four- and five-star hotels."
By renting out and selling the lodgings, Interros hopes to eventually return its investment in the RIOU project.
"There will be four main [university] buildings, arranged as flower petals," Potanin said. "This is a well calculated project, and everyone likes it at this point. Building 130,000 square meters of space in only two to three years is kind of a sporting feat by itself, actually," he added, referring to a common Russian habit to put work off until the last minute. "Just to be able to lay communications here, we will have to go down two-and-a-half floors underground. With the university, there is no rush. But this is a matter of reputation. There are IOC deadlines for us, as we made certain commitments during the negotiating process."
IOC chief Jacques Rogge, who visited Sochi a short while ago to see how preparations for the 2014 Games were going, should feel optimistic at least about one of the construction projects, the Alpine ski track known as Roza Khutor. This project is also run by Potanin. "During his meeting with Vladimir Putin, Mr Rogge mentioned it every five minutes," a source in the Russian delegation said.
Roza Khutor is perhaps the only Olympic project certain to be completed ahead of schedule. It will be commissioned by the end of this year and will then be ready to accommodate a European championship. With this in mind, Interros has begun talks with the Bank of Development over the possibility of bringing the interest rate from an annual 12% down to the Central Bank's rate plus 0.4%, Potanin said.
During the cornerstone ceremony, Mr. Rogge (or, perhaps, his interpreter) was so excited that he described the event as the inauguration of an Olympic site. In return, Putin recalled that Russia had submitted its bid to host the 2014 Olympics with little more then a beautiful concept and big political will.
"It would be true to say that Sochi had little else to offer [in support of the bid]," he said to the thundering applause of volunteers. "But now we see Olympic sites and infrastructure mushrooming here right in front of our eyes."
The federal authorities have some reasons to worry, though. There is talk in government quarters about the imminent dismissal of the current Olympic construction supervisor, Taimuraz Balloyev. Delays in restoring a port in the Imereti Valley, crucial for the delivery of construction materials to Sochi's Olympic sites, proved to be the last straw. The port was badly damaged by a storm in December 2009.
Potanin is the most likely candidate to take over. But he would neither confirm nor deny it. "I have no idea where those rumors come from," he said, shrugging his shoulders.