With no fanfare, officials in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, recently granted Paragon Gaming and its development firm, Dundee Corporation, a permit for preliminary site preparation work, on a 5 million casino/hotel complex next to B.C. Place Stadium. Paragon hopes to complete the controversial project by 2016. The city’s Development Permit Board conditionally approved the project last December.
Paragon spokesperson Tamara Hicks said the preliminary work will include “some excavation work in a time frame that won’t compromise some major events planned for B.C. Place in the new year.” The biggest event planned for 2015 at B.C. Place will be the FIFA Women’s World Cup final on July 5.
The Vancouver city council voted in April 2011 to allow Paragon to move its existing Edgewater Casino license to the B.C. Pavilion Corporation land, but rejected its request to expand.
Sandy Garossino, spokesperson for the opposition coalition Vancouver Not Vegas said, “There needs to be transparency before the public, before anything is done on this. Issuing site preparation presupposes that the final development permit is going to go forward.” Garossino noted Paragon did not follow through on a promise to build a hotel at its Eagle River Casino in Whitecourt, Alberta, which went into receivership. Paragon said in sworn statements that plan was overwhelmed by regulations and debt.
