Gateway Casinos & Entertainment reconfirmed its commitment to spending $60 million to develop a casino as part of the True North Strong project on The Kingsway.
Last night, a tie vote by city councillors defeated a motion to put the city’s new event centre, expected to cost around $100 million, in the downtown core. Instead, council voted 10-2 in favour of the True North Strong project on The Kingsway.
Shortly after the meeting, Gateway issued a statement reconfirming an earlier commitment to spend $60 million to build a casino as part of True North Strong. Developer and Sudbury Wolves owner Dario Zulich has described the ambitious development as less of an event centre and more of an “entertainment district,” that would include an arena/event centre, retail and hotel amenities, a motorsports park and more.
“(We) are pleased to learn that the City of Greater Sudbury council voted to approve the True North site as the location for the new arena and event centre,” Robert Mitchell, public affairs and communications for Gateway Casinos, said in a statement to Sudbury.com.
“Our Letter of Intent with True North shows our commitment to the Kingsway site. The vision for the True North location as regional entertainment district aligns well with Gateway's approach to creating gaming and entertainment destinations in the communities where we operate. “
Mitchell said the company’s $60 million investment will “create an additional 250 new jobs which will grow the Gateway work force in Greater Sudbury to over 400 employees.”
“This is an exciting day and an important step forward,” he said. “We look forward to working with council and community partners to develop the economic and tourism potential of the True North location.”
Not everyone was happy with the result of the vote though. Downtown supporters were visibly upset by the outcome.
“We've bet on one developer over our entire downtown, over hundreds of business owners who invest year over year based on a promise that we're going to reinvest in them,” said Jeff MacIntyre, the chair of the Downtown Sudbury BIA.
MacIntyre said last night’s decision and the divisive debate leading up to it is a vote against those who have been leading a revival of the downtown in recent times.
“This is going to slow us down,” he said. “Downtown has had a massive comeback in the last 10 to 15 years.”
Many councilors who backed The Kingsway bid expressed their support for continued investment in the downtown which a new art gallery, library and Synergy Centre, promises MacIntyre seemed to take that with a grain of salt.
“There were a lot of promises made tonight to the downtown to make up for what's been taken out,” he said. “If you looked around at the number of youth in red shirts here tonight who support the downtown, and you see the look of disappointment on their faces — they care about downtown but they care about Greater Sudbury. Council has a long way to go to make that back up.”
