The surrey leader just put out a artical about the proposed casinos for surrey plus it had a minor update about the berezan towers in it
Two huge casinos are headed to Surrey council for consideration, possibly within the next month.
One is being brought forward by builder Bob Cheema, who is planning a convention centre, hotel and casino at 8 Avenue and 168 Street.
The $150-million proposal includes a 200-suite hotel and 800-seat convention centre along with the casino.
Cheema said that even if the casino application is rejected, he plans to go ahead with the hotel and convention centre.
The other casino is being planned as part of a much larger project by developer Ralph Berezan, who announced a huge highrise development just before the 2008 election.
“It’s morphed a bit,” Berezan said of the project slated to be built near the SkyTrain terminus at 100 Avenue and King George Boulevard (formerly Highway). “I think we originally had six buildings, now it’s down to five.”
The $1.4-billion project would include four million square feet of space for a convention centre, shopping plaza, office space and a casino.
“It’s a 15-year program, at least five or six phases,” Berezan said Monday. “So it’s not like we’d be doing that in five minutes.”
He described the casino as being the scope and scale of Richmond’s River Rock Casino and Resort.
Like Cheema, Berezan said the rest of the project will move forward with or without a casino.
However, without it, he said it will likely proceed at a slower pace.
“Right now, a big portion of this project is office (space),” Berezan said.
He’s aware of Cheema’s application and acknowledges that casino approval is up to the province.
That said, he believes his proposal is best positioned to host a casino.
“The way I look at it, you’d want your casino to be in a more populated area rather than an unpopulated area,” Berezan said. “I think that’s up to the provincial authorities to make that decision.”
Berezan confesses having a bit of jitters over developing such a huge project in this economy.
“It’s a little scary,” he said. “There’s still a lot of speculation when you spend all this money, you never really know how your going to end up.”
Berezan said he has three projects in the works where he’s already spent more than $10 million apiece, all of which is his own money.
There’s a pragmatic reason for that, he said.
“I’m scared to put debt on something when I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “More or less we’re just trying to move forward.”
Cheema had scheduled a public information meeting at Hazelmere Golf Course Monday night for his project.
He stresses that the casino portion is only about “20 per cent of the project.”
The main feature, he notes, is the convention facility, which he says is long overdue for this city.
Some of the meeting rooms, he said, will be sound-proofed, so they can be used for the movie industry.
He believes there’s only a “10-per-cent chance” the province will award this city a gaming licence at all.
But he believes his location is superior to that of Berezan’s.
“Do you see anywhere a casino in downtown?” Cheema asked. “You’ve got enough issues in downtown for God sakes.”
Both projects are heading to council before the city’s gaming committee has met to discuss proposed changes to the gaming policy.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/news/Casino_plans_due_before_council.html
