LATEST NEWS 
March 24, 2006
Fixed-price contracts to save construction costs, says fund
Fund manager redeveloping one casino, building others
VANCOUVER
Gateway Casinos Income Fund is looking to sign a fixed-price contract for its Vancouver-area casino redevelopment in an effort to control building costs amid an ongoing construction boom in the city.
“Although we are open to continued cost increases until the contract is in place, we believe the fund will benefit in the long term,” said CEO Dave Gadhia.
“It does fix the majority of the construction costs up front and we believe, in the current construction industry, this is more important to the fund than starting construction a few months earlier.’’
The company said it has begun the tender process in search of a general contractor and hoped to sign an agreement in the coming weeks.
Excavation and site preparation work has already begun and is expected to be finished later this month.
Once completed, the new casino will include a restaurant, a 200-room hotel and a 25,000-square-foot convention centre scheduled to open in the spring of 2008.
The development of the casino in Burnaby, B.C. follows the recent opening of three new or expanded facilities in the Vancouver area. However, Gadhia said he believed there was still room in the marketplace for an expanded casino in Burnaby.
“We believe that the market for casino gaming in the GVRD (Greater Vancouver Regional District) is approximately $1 billion per year and this is ample demand for both the existing casinos and those currently being developed to benefit,” he said.
“Once all the projects are completed, we are estimating that there will be about 5,500 slot machines in the GVRD, even at this level, we will still be in line with other Canadian gaming jurisdictions on a per capita basis.”
Gateway is also evaluating new projects in the B.C. interior that could possibly see the building of a new 30,000 to 35,000 square foot casino in Kamloops and an expansion of an existing casino at the Grand Okanagan Lakeside Resort in Kelowna.
The fund operates the Burnaby Casino in B.C., the Palace Casino in Edmonton and the Lake City Casinos in Kamloops, Kelowna, Penticton and Vernon, B.C.
Canadian Press
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