North Bay Mayor Al McDonald is glad to see action being taken on efforts to build a casino in the city.
See: OLG names new casino operator for North Bay
Council passed a motion to accept a casino back in 2012, and just recently approved rezoning of two properties on Pinewood Park Dr. to host a casino.
One is the old MO-ZE-ON INN, which the city now owns and has plans to demolish. The other, owned by a numbered company, sits across the street.
"Council turned down the application to re-zone the Ken Roc site near the waterfront," McDonald told BayToday. "The proposed casino will create between 150 to 200 jobs for the city, pay property tax and provide to the city appox. 5% of the gaming revenue, estimated to be between 1 and 2 million per year."
McDonald expects the development will spur other new development and give the area an economic boost.
"With the announcement today, we will speak with the proponent in the next few weeks. The proponent can request or submit to build on another site within the city but would need council approval to do so. Currently only two sites are approved (Pinewood Park Dr). If the proponent decides on another location, they would need not only council approval but go through the rezoning process which currently takes six to nine months."
McDonald says the City still owns the former strip club. "Council needs to declare the property surplus which not happened," he said this afternoon.
Meanwhile Callander Mayor Hec Lavigne is taking a wait and see stance.
"It's part of the process. I don't want to interfere in their deliberations over it."
Lavigne had in the past expressed concerns with the site being so close to his municipality. In fact, if the Pinewood site is chosen the casino will be much closer to Callander's downtown than North Bay's.
"I reached out suggesting it be a regional facility where we would share the benefit of it but I didn't receive a response from OLG and North Bay City Council rebutted that as well so the whole casino issue is in their bailiwick to deal with."
