The president of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, Dr. Jose Joaquin Puello confirmed a report in El Nacional yesterday that the Banco Popular Dominicano was finalizing the purchase of the lot on which the 2003 Pan American Games Olympic village would go up for RD$390 million. The lot is across from the BPD headquarters tower. Engineering sectors had criticized the construction of the 700-apartment/eight 23-floor buildings on the lot, saying it was too small a lot. The Olympic Committee had favored the construction on the lot because it is diagonally across from the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center, where most 2003 Santo Domingo Pan American sport competitions will take place. Dr. Puello said that the Pan Am Games committee is considering other options, but had yet to meet with President Leonel Fernández on the matter. While Olympic Committee executives had alleged that the village would be built by the private sector for sale after the Pan Am Games, serious doubts about the feasibility of finding buyers if the villa went up on the JF Kennedy lot surfaced. The Listin Diario reports that the Olympic Village would go up on a large lot located near the V Centenario Horse Race Track. The US$12.5 million cost of the village would be financed with Venezuelan funds. Nelly Manuel Doñe, technical director of the 15th Pan American games confirmed this project is being discussed in an interview in the Listin Diario. Alfredo Rodriguez Gallard, who heads a group of Venezuelan technicians that have worked on the project said that the government has discarded building new installations in the Juan Pablo Duarte park and that these will go up adjacent to the new olympic village. The lot near the racetrack is large enough to permit the construction of needed facilities for karate, tae kwon do, badminton, tennis, skeet, shooting, ping pong, horseback riding and other competitions. The government will repair existing installations at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center, such as the cycling track, Olympic stadium, gym, volleyball and judo pavilions, Olympic pool and build a baseball stadium. The Las Americas site will be but a 15-minute drive away from the Las Americas International Airport, main port of entry for those coming for the Santo Domingo Pan American Games.
