The application to build a casino in South Delta has formally been submitted to city hall.
Delta council discussed a staff report, a late addition to the agenda of Monday’s weekly meeting, which noted the proposed facility will include a five-storey hotel with 116 rooms, meeting facilities and multiple restaurants.
The application for the Delta Town & Country Inn site requires a consultation process and rezoning approval.
In September, the B.C. Lottery Corporation gave Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd. preliminary approval to relocate the Newton Community Gaming Centre in Surrey to the Ladner site.
According to BCLC, it made this decision after listening to the community and the clear feedback from the City of Delta that the only suitable site on which it would consider a gambling and entertainment facility is the Delta Town & Country Inn property due to its distance from homes and highway access.
The proposed $70 million hotel and casino now must go through the civic approval process beginning with a series of public information meetings over the next few months organized by Gateway. The first is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 28 at the Delta Town & Country Inn, but details, including times, still must be announced by the casino company.
Delta will also hold its own public information sessions as the application moves along.
If all goes according to plan, Gateway hopes to begin construction in the fall of 2018 with the complex open for business by October 2020.
The report notes that although Gateway’s application includes a request for a casino with up to 600 slot machines and 24 gaming tables, BCLC has not made a decsion regarding the quantity and type of proposed gaming at the facility.
A letter by BCLC to Delta notes the casino authority’s focus is on growing the market and not shifting play.
Local governments where gaming facilities are located have been receiving a 10 per cent share of the net income generated by the facilities.
