
Downtown Vancouver is getting a new $450-million casino and hotel complex to anchor its new "entertainment epicentre," B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell confirmed.
Campbell made the announcement with David Podmore, the chair of the B.C. Pavilion Corporation, at a news conference at the proposed site for the complex — a parking lot between BC Place and the end of the Cambie Street Bridge.
The casino, which will be similar in size to the River Rock in Richmond, will also include two major hotels, five restaurants, and more than 100,000 square feet of gambling facilities, said Campbell, who called the project a catalyst for development of the area.
The new facility will be run by Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming, replacing the company's Edgewater Casino in the old B.C. Expo 86 pavilion across the street from the new site.
That location has had troubles with poor access and parking, but the new location is expected to be more easily accessible to the public.
Pending the approval of a re-zoning application by the City of Vancouver, construction is expected to begin in early 2011 and wrap up by 2013.

Next door, work is under way on the installation of a new retractable roof on BC Place stadium. That $460-million project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2011.

The new casino complex is expected to generate about 3,200 direct jobs during construction, and up to $130 million a year in revenues for the province once it is completed, said Campbell.