Now, it's just an empty six-acre lot in Burnaby. In about two years it will become home to Scott Cousens' dreams - and those of many aspiring athletes.

If all goes according to plan, city-owned land on the northwest corner of Sprott Street and Kensington Avenue will become the site of the $50-million Pacific MultiSport Centre of Excellence (PMSCE).

The 158,135-sq.-ft. facility is designed to train young elite athletes and treat their injuries using a multi-disciplinary approach that places competitors, coaches, doctors, physiotherapists, administrators, other sports personnel and merchants under one roof.

Cousens envisions the Pacific MultiSport Centre as a place where young athletes can get the training and treatment they need to succeed - and avoid health problems that hamper their quests.

Wayne Chose, Business Edge
Chairman Scott Cousens, left, and president and CEO Loyal Makaroff, third from right, pose with Allison Sydor, right, and Burnaby students at the unveiling of the plans for the $50-million Pacific MultiSport Centre of Excellence.

"I was an aspiring athlete," said Cousens, a former football player and kickboxer who is now a mining company executive. "My body gave out on me long before it should have."

If all goes according to plan, the PMSCE will include a 14,095-sq.-ft. sports medicine and rehabilitation centre, a 14,000-sq.-ft. strength and conditioning centre, a 25,620-sq.-ft. gym, a 120-room athletes' village and 20,000 sq. ft. of commercial and retail space.

"We can do a lot better with the young athletes in our community that show incredible promise," said Cousens, who is in his early 40s.

"There's no industry, if you will, that's grown up around building professional athletes and building elite (amateur) athletes. We do things well, but we do it on a piecemeal basis - myself included. When I was younger, there were assets available that I was unaware of. I accessed the wrong assets along the way."

The centre will be located directly across Kensington Avenue from the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex, virtually next door to Burnaby 8 Rinks.

Four-time Olympic cyclist Alison Sydor, an Olympic medal-winning mountain biker and three-time world champion, and former Vancouver Canuck star Cliff Ronning, a Burnaby native who also lives there, welcomed the plans during a recent news conference.

Cousens - the lone investor so far - sidestepped questions about financing, except to reveal he has yet to raise funds for the development.

"My contribution to this project is going to be bringing together the fund-raising (i.e. investors) to ensure that all of the right people that need to be involved are involved, and that the project has a strong financial footing," said Cousens.

He has secured accounting and legal services from KPMG and Lang Michener LLP, as well as building design from Canon Design Architects.

"Because this project has to stand on its own two feet, I have contracted with the best people available to make this project work," said Cousens.

Image courtesy of the Pacific MultiSport Centre of Excellence
An artist's rendering of Burnaby's proposed Pacific MultiSport Centre of Excellence.

The Vancouver resident, who grew up in Montreal, is a principal and director of investor relations and finance for Hunter Dickinson Inc., which operates and owns shares in publicly owned firms that mine gold, silver, lead, zinc, molybdenum, platinum resources and diamonds worldwide.

He is also a "large shareholder" and director in mining companies, including Taseko Mines Ltd. that owns the Gibraltar Mine near Williams Lake, Continental Minerals Corp. and Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.

He indicated his financial involvement will eventually be revealed in an offer of memorandum for investors as "part of the historic financing of the project," hinting that the facility will not be operated under a traditional structure.

"It's going to be owned by the investors," said Cousens. "If there's one particular investor that steps up to be the biggest, they'll then have the largest ownership of the project.

"But there's also an integration in this project of a not-for-profit component. It's a very unique business model."

The facility will be built entirely with private funds - unlike most Canadian sports facilities, which are publicly owned and operated.

The City of Burnaby will provide the land after the Cousens group buys it at market value.

Civic approval is not expected to be a major hurdle either, considering that city council has voted 7-1 in favour of beginning the rezoning process on the site.

Mayor Derek Corrigan also praised the plan - vowing to make Burnaby's Central Valley area (where the centre is to be located) a "mecca" for sports.

During the news conference at the city-owned Burnaby Lake Sports Complex, Corrigan said he had doubts about the proposed facility at first, but city staff later convinced him that it could be delivered as promised.

The mayor, a former minor soccer and lacrosse coach who was also involved in hockey, and whose children participated in sports, said he has always been concerned that Canada has not been spending the money needed to take athletes to a world-class level.

"One of the wonderful things about being a politician is that you recognize the things that will benefit your community," said Corrigan. "You may not be able to deliver them in time for the benefit of your own family, but you can deliver them in time for the benefit of future generations."

Loyal Makaroff, the centre's president and CEO, said the centre will provide an integrated approach to training and treatment so that everybody is aware of athletes' needs, whether they're physical or psychological.

"We're looking at pulling together world-class physicians, (rehabilitation therapists), strength and conditioning people who can offer their services to individual athletes at a calibre that is given to professional athletes," said Makaroff, who is overseeing the site's planning and construction.

Norm Neville, the centre's development manager, said a building permit is not expected until next spring. Construction is expected to commence next summer.

"It's so difficult (to schedule) in this market with the load that's on contractors today - they're so busy," said Neville, who operates Neville Developments Ltd.

The centre's advisers include Alex McKechnie, a Burnaby-based physiotherapist who is on contract with the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association and plans to work out of the centre.

Dr. Brian Day, a world-renowned specialist in arthroscopic procedures who operates the privately owned Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver, also sits on the centre's advisory board.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)