The highly-anticipated MultiSport Centre of Excellence in Burnaby’s Central Valley remains on hold while its proponents beat the bushes for more funding.

When completed, the proposed 160,000-square-foot building at the corner of Sprott Street and Kensington Avenue will house world-class sport medicine and rehabilitation facilities, a strength and conditioning centre, gyms, labs, office space, an athlete’s village and sport-related retail outlets.

The $60-million project is funded by a non-profit foundation which owns the land and eventual building, and will provide bursaries and scholarships to athletes who could otherwise not afford to use the facility, said Loyal Makaroff, president and chief executive officer of the MultiSport centre. It has already raised more than $20 million and construction started in May 2008.

Unfortunately, donated shares of stock lost much of their value when the economic downturn happened last fall, causing construction to stop. And while it was attempting to secure leases for space earlier this year, those interested can’t commit until the project has an opening date, Makaroff said.

So for now, their focus is on raising capital through donations to the foundation and traditional financing.

“We’re talking to interested people, it’s not done ‘til it’s done as they say.

“We didn’t expect the world to collapse last September,” Makaroff said. “It’s not an easy market out there.”

Despite that, with indications that the economy and markets will be turning around in the near future, the proponents hope to have the money in place to resume construction in the fall, he said.

Meantime, the MultiSport group has finished more than 90 per cent of adjacent off-site construction at a cost of about $3 million.

A soccer field has been completed and is already being used by community groups and occasionally, the Vancouver Whitecaps. Trees have been planted and urban trails have been installed. Roadwork is awaiting city and provincial approvals.

This week, a 140-metre-long sprint training track will be installed, completing construction at one of the nearby playing fields. The four-lane track will be available for use by the World Police and Fire Games at the end of this month.

“We’re excited it’s a challenge but we’re feeling quite confident that [resumption of construction will] come around soon,” Makaroff said.

wchow@burnabynewsleader.com