The organizing committee for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics (POCOG) "held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the launch of construction of the Athletes Village on Tuesday," according to Peter Rutherford of REUTERS. Construction "is due to be completed in 2017 and will house around 3,500 athletes traveling to the South Korean alpine town for the Games." Gunilla Lindberg, who chairs the IOC's coordination committee for Asia's first Winter Games outside Japan, said, "The Olympic Village is the heart of the Olympic Games. ... I am confident that this Village will be a good facility for the athletes and I know that President Cho and his team will spare no effort to deliver the best conditions and services possible for those Olympians staying here in 2018" (REUTERS, 9/22). YONHAP reported the Olympic Village "will cover 42,000 square meters of land." Organizers said, "The village has been designed as multi-functional resort type apartments in order to provide an athlete-oriented environment while ensuring an eco-friendly atmosphere with maximized accessibility." After the Olympics, the Olympic Village "will be sold in individual blocks to the public," a decision that the organizers said will save PyeongChang more than $8.5M (YONHAP, 9/22). The AP reported organizers saif that the $152M village "will be built by a private company" on the site of the 42,000 square meter Yongpyong Dome in the mountain cluster (AP, 9/22).
