New Paragon Casino Proposal for Vancouver
Paragon Development Ltd has submitted a new casino proposal for BC Place Stadium.When the company made an earlier proposal to build a casino next to the stadium, it raised many objections, which is why it put together a whole new proposal that is more mindful of the affected community.
Relocation of Edgewater Casino
In the second proposal for a casino at BC Place Stadium, Paragon has proposed a $535 million urban resort, which has been described as a "world class urban resort." The urban resort would have two hotels, restaurants, a conference centre, and retail outlets, and a casino on its 675,000 square foot site.
The casino would not be a new casino, but rather the Edgewater Casino, which would be relocated to this location. The Edgewater Casino has 75 gaming tables and 600 slots machines available for play.
Scott Menke, the President of Paragon Development Ltd. said that the company changed its proposal after hearing the protests to its first proposal.
He explained: "We needed to do that because we needed to get it right. The concept that we are here to share with you today meets all those goals. The urban resort concept is very different than the casino resorts that many people thing of, especially the ones in Las Vegas."
Opposition to Paragon Resort at BC Place
While there was a lot of opposition to the original Paragon casino plan, there has been less opposition to this new plan. Much of the opposition centered around the first proposal was the increased number of slot machines to 1,500 and the increased number of gaming tables to 150.
However, Paragon's new proposal does not include the expansion of the size of the casino, which means there is still some opposition in case the casino wants to expand the number of slots and gaming tables in the future. Most of the opposition is coming from an anti-casino group known as Vancouver Not Vegas.
Paragon has already signed an agreement with PavCo, the company that owns the land, and have also signed a development agreement. Before work on the site can begin, Paragon still needs to get the necessary approval from the city.
Paragon and PavCo are confident that there will be approval for the new urban resort plan, and are hoping that the Paragon urban resort will be open to the public in 2016.
