Victoria may not allow new gaming centres — but needs the cash
Brian Lewis
Province
A rendering of Ralph Berezan’s planned multi-tower complex, with full casino, near Surrey’s King George SkyTrain station. – HANDOUT
The City of Surrey is serving notice that it’s ready to roll the dice on establishing new gaming facilities.
That intent was outlined in a letter last week from the city to B.C. government gaming regulators.
In fact, that letter represented more than wishful thinking, because Surrey has already received three applications for gaming facilities.
One is for a $25-million upgrade to a bingo hall at 72nd Avenue and King George Highway that would transform it into a community gaming site at which slot machines would be the primary attraction.
But the other two applications — one in north Surrey and the other in the city’s south — are for full-service casinos, complete with all the games of chance, green felt-top tables and live-entertainment lounges you’d see in a typical Las Vegas establishment.
Well-known Surrey developers are behind both proposals. In south Surrey, the complex being proposed by developer Bob Cheema includes a casino, an upscale 200-room hotel and an 800-seat convention centre.
It’s planned for a 24-acre property at 8th Avenue and 168th Street just off Highway 99. That places it very close to the Peace Arch border crossing — and the sizeable northwest-U.S. hospitality/convention market.
Cheema, who already owns Best Western hotels in Surrey and Vancouver, says this $100-million project fills a market need in south Surrey for a high-class hotel and convention centre. The casino, he adds, would simply be icing on the cake.
“But failing to get approval for a casino from the B.C. Lottery Corporation won’t be a deal-breaker,” he adds. “The hotel and convention centre would still proceed.”
He says if all three components are built, it will create more than 300 permanent jobs for the area.
In north Surrey, developer Ralph Berezan’s proposal to include a full casino in his multi-tower project at King George Highway near King George SkyTrain station is equally well located.
It connects directly with Surrey’s new City Centre development that will include a relocated city hall and other amenities such as a main library, museum and performing-arts centre.
“We’ll try to give the River Rock Casino in Richmond some competition with this project,” Berezan tells me. “It will include an 1,800-to-2,000-seat theatre.”
He points out that his project’s four-hectare location has a population of about 200,000 people living within a 16-kilometre radius.
However, even if Surrey gives one or both of these projects its blessing, the toughest odds on their approval rest with the provincial government and its B.C. Lottery Corporation.
Even though Victoria is cash-strapped, deficit-ridden and earns many millions from gambling, it isn’t hell-bent on building more casinos, says Rich Coleman, Housing and Social Development minister, who is also responsible for gaming.
“These guys in Surrey who want to build casinos are way premature with their applications,” he says, adding that gaming facilities at Fraser Downs in Cloverdale and others in New Westminster, Langley City and Richmond already serve Surrey’s market.
“If our studies show that another casino in the area will hurt the existing casinos, then we won’t allow it,” Coleman warned.
In other words, a new casino for Surrey looks like a longshot — unless the gambling cash cow in Victoria needs feeding again.
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