The province is hoping to get the new downtown casino through the Cit of Vancouver's rezoning process, complete with public hearings, in the next eight months so that Paragon can start digging and, soon after, start paying its lease to the province to help pay for the new retractable roof on BC Place.
But city types are already sending warning shots across the bow that they’re not just going to approve any old thing. The last time we went through this was with the convention centre addition, which the province also took through the city’s design process. That was not a happy time, with many in the city feeling that they were making the best of a bad and unfortunate inevitability.
I can’t help but add my two cents’ worth (two cents that I’ll never be spending on slots, no matter what, because the one and only time I tried using a slot machine on a one-day visit to Las Vegas, I was too dense to figure out how to work the machine). Isn’t it kind of strange that Vancouver would have a big casino downtown? That’s usually something that you see in loser, rust-belt cities that can’t figure out what else to do with their depopulated downtowns. Is there another healthy Vancouver-like city that has a big-butt casino in the middle of its downtown?
Though I must add here that when I talked to Pavco chair David Podmore, he made this whole megaplex sound more like a second convention centre/concert venue in the city than a casino resort. He says the new arrangement, with the new roof, will allow about 40 more nights of BC Place use during the summer, likely primarily for entertainment. As well, he says it will enable Vancouver to bring in the kinds of conventions that require seating for 50,000 (the Lions, Rotary or AA were examples he cited).
Frances Bula reports for Vancouver Magazine and The Globe and Mail.
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RossK
1 year ago
I must confess....
...That while I saw the marshmallow roof-assisted land-jack coming, I never envisioned that it would be a Vegas-Style casino with a grass top.
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dave49
1 year ago
Tourism draw
It's common in a lot of tourist destinations to try to offer a little bit of everything that tourists might want. In many parts of Europe, prostitution is allowed/tolerated in a very limited way to serve the tourist trade. Even the a small city will have at least one casino.
However, we already have casinos in Vancouver, and bigger casinos with show stages a short ride away by Canada Line.
This shows how pathetic we are becoming in our economic underdevelopment.
Frances, you did not miss anything by not being able to figure out how to work a slot machine, They are utterly boring.
crankypants
1 year ago
Casino folly
First I'd like to dispute Gordon Campbell's assertion that the casinos we have in BC are anything like those in Las Vegas, especially those that are on the strip. The only similarities is that you can gamble in ours and theirs.
The other thing that should be investigated is how Paragon was awarded the right to build this casino. According to Publiceyeonline, one of the directors of Paragon is a former honcho of both ICBC and the BC Lottery Corporation. This person has also been a very generous donor to the BC Liberal party over the last few years. There were other entities that also put forward proposals and one can't help think that the fix was in ala BC Rail.
Another troublesome thing is the cost of the new roof for BC Place. It was announced today that Winnipeg will be getting a new football stadium with seating for 30,000+ and expandable to accomodate 40,000 fans for a Grey Cup game. The cost of construction is pegged at $115 million and the new stadium will have covered seating for 80% of the fans. Our cost for just a new roof plus alterations is north of $500 million. I don't know about anyone else, but this expenditure just doesn't make sense, and nobody has ever come out a said whether BC Place generates enough income to counter its expenses.
I think that someone has some splainin' to do, and the sooner the better.
freebear
1 year ago
Green , urban vaccum cleaner!
Government; addicted to gambling addicts!