Construction of North Bay's Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Cascades North Bay Casino is finally underway. The official ground-breaking ceremony took place on the last day of May, with most of the conversationalists of the last couple of months present, including North mayor Al McDonald and a group representing the smiling turtles of North Bay; official name Blanding's Turtle. Work on the new $31-million Cascades Casino is underway in North Bay after a May 31 groundbreaking ceremony that Finance Minister Vic Fedeli called 'truly a historic occasion.' The site on Pinewood Park Drive in the city's south end will be home to the 39,000-square-foot casino that will employ 300 workers and is scheduled to open in mid-July. These include Lucky Chances and Bay 101, however here we're just focusing here on casinos with slot machines, craps, blackjack and the like. All that said, the closest casino to San Francisco is the Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park. The Graton is located 50 miles north of San Francisco on Highway 101.
A bulldozer, temporary road, and a portable office may signal the start of Gateway Casino's new venture on Pinewood Park Drive in North Bay.
The dozer arrived Monday to construct a temporary road to the site, complete with a locked gate and 'No Trespassing' sign. The portable office sits on the roadside without any identifying markings.
There is no sign of work permits, but the property has been staked.
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A call and email to Gateway were not returned.
The property, just north of the former Moe Zee On Inn location is the expected site of the casino, although the company has not made any formal announcements but has done nothing to dampen speculation on the site either.
A $31 million facility is planned, covering a seven-acre parcel of land bordered by Pinewood Park Drive, Highway 11 and the PetroCanada station.
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See: Gateway Casino has big plans for North Bay
Carrie Kormos, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications earlier told BayToday that the company will be consulting with the community and political leaders about developing a plan.
Kormos says Gateway has already done some research and looked at market capacity with competing facilities in Sudbury and Orillia, but will be doing more with local stakeholders to 'really understand the market and scope out what we think would be the best fit in terms of the size and scale of the amenities for the community of North Bay.'
See: New casino expected to be a regional draw with food and entertainment
The North Bay facility, named 'Cascades Casino' is expected to open in the spring/summer of next year.
See: North Bay's 'Cascades Casino' to open in spring of 2020
The casino will contain approximately 14,100 square feet of gaming space, including 300 slot machines and 10 table games. It will also house a sports bar called MATCH, and a restaurant called The Buffet.
Lady Luck isn't smiling on North Bay's new casino on Pinewood Park Drive.
Construction has hit a snag – a big one called COVID-19. Gateway Casinos had originally targetted a spring opening for its newest property, but construction on Cascades Casino has stopped, and won't start any time soon.
'We can't commit to a date to resume construction in North Bay,' Rob Mitchell, Gateway Casinos' director of communications, told BayToday. 'Our primary focus is reopening our 12 existing sites across the province.'
He did say, however, that Gateway Casinos is firmly committed to opening the local casino at a later date.
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Ontario Lottey and Gaming (OLG) selected Gateway to privately operate its gaming centres in late 2016, following a modernization process for the province's lottery industry.
Under the agreement, the Burnaby, B.C.-headquartered Gateway will operate the already existing casinos in Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay, and build a new facility in North Bay.
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When plans for North Bay's casino were announced in May 2019, Gateway said it would invest $31 million in the build, and create up to 300 new jobs in North Bay.
The 39,000-square-foot casino, located in the city's south end, will include 300 slots and eight live table games, along with two restaurants.
Mitchell said that construction had proceeded far enough on the facility to self-contain and weatherproof the building, which means it could sit there for an extended period of time without incurring any damage.
He's uncertain when construction might resume.
Across its properties, Mitchell said, the company has more than 5,000 employees anxious to get back to work, and despite the provincial government lifting its construction ban, uncertainty is high.
'We've been operating in the red now for eight weeks with absolutely no cash flow because our sites are closed. We are going to have considerable overhead when we reopen,' Mitchell said. 'We don't know under what circumstances we'll be able to reopen.'
Gateway's priority is to get existing casinos back up and running, although there's been no indication from the province on when that might be.
'The problem right now is the same problem so many other businesses are facing that offer an entertainment product. We're no different from sports franchises, movie theatres and live entertainment, restaurants, travel, and tourism,' Mitchell said.
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'We're all waiting to see under what conditions we can resume our businesses.'
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– BayToday.ca
