PENTICTON — Get ready to roll the dice in a brand new location in Penticton. Gateway and the City of Penticton have entered into a lease agreement to move the city’s casino from its Lakeside Resort location to the South Okanagan Events Centre (SOEC).
The casino has been located inside the hotel for the past 15 years, but the Lakeside Resort owner didn’t want to renew the lease due to other hotel expansions.
The proposed Cascade Casino will house 45,000 square feet of entertainment space and is forecast to create up to 150 jobs.
Construction is scheduled to start in 2016 with a grand opening in the spring of 2017.
The city says the new casino will mean an uptick of about $100,000 a year in increased school, hospital and regional district taxes, but the city is waiving its share of the property taxes for 10 years, as gateway takes advantage of municipal tax breaks for major projects built within the SOEC ‘economic incentive zone.’
“The City of Penticton has worked hard to keep this business within our city and secure the $1.6-million in hosting revenue for citizen services,” says Penticton mayor, Andrew Jakubeit. “Anytime an established business in the community is growing, creating jobs and investing $25 million in the community, it is very exciting.”
Gateway will pay the city up to $250,000 in annual land-lease payments for 20 years, with an option to renew the lease for another 10 years.
There are a number of open houses next week for you to learn more about the project:
Nov. 30: 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. at the Penticton Seniors’ Drop-In Centre Society
Dec. 1: 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. and 6 – 8pm at the Sandman Hotel
Dec. 8: 1 p.m. -3 p.m. and 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the Ramada Hotel
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