Jeremy Deutsch - Kamloops This Week January 13, 2010
It’s a safe bet a new casino in downtown Kamloops won’t be playing any hands in the foreseeable future. Gateway Casinos has informed the city it won’t be proceeding with a plan to replace its existing casino with a much larger version, while council took the steps to rescind the rezoning of the property. The gaming company was proposing a 45,000 square-foot casino with a two-level, 220-stall underground parkade located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Lansdowne Street. The company told the city it didn’t have money to expand. For now, the property will remain a parking lot and the existing 4,000-square-foot Lake City Casino will remain in the Executive Inn in the 500-block of Victoria Street.
But Mayor Peter Milobar is confident a new casino will eventually be built. “As things [economy] improve around the world, I hope they [Gateway] would be able to start finding the financing needed to make the project a go,” he said, adding he would like to see the company hold on to the land until then. Milobar, who wasn’t shocked to hear the project was being put on hold, said he supported the initial rezoning application because it made sense to have a modern casino with more amenities, considering BC Lottery Corporation is headquartered in the city. If Gateway does eventually decide to resurrect the project, it must go through the entire process again. David Trawin, Kamloops’ director of development and engineering services, said the city repealed the rezoning because, over time, regulations change. He said the city would like to see the property developed at some point. “We felt it was a good facility to expand in the downtown core, that would bring people to that area and upgrade that area.”
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