Magnetic Hill location dashes hopes for role in downtown development

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The provincial government confirmed yesterday what has long been suspected by residents -- Metro Moncton will become home to the province's first, and only, casino.

But those betting on the multi-million-dollar project to spur downtown development were left disappointed as the casino will be located in the Magnetic Hill area.

"We're certainly disappointed in today's decision," said Daniel Allain, executive director of Downtown Moncton Inc.

"This maybe is a missed opportunity."

Finance Minister Victor Boudreau announced Sonco Gaming New Brunswick Ltd. was the successful proponent selected to build a casino.

Although Boudreau would not reveal the exact site of the casino, insiders say the likely location is a 70-acre piece of land on Charles Lutes Road, at Mountain Road.

Sonco plans to build a resort hotel with 128 rooms, as a convention centre with theatre seating for 1,500 and a banquet-style capacity for 1,400. The project is funded entirely by the private sector.

The $90-million project is expected to create 770 full-time equivalent jobs during construction and about 400 full-time jobs when the facility opens in 2010.

Boudreau said government expects to receive about $25 million a year in gambling revenues from the operation.

"Hopefully this destination casino complex will attract more types of investments in the province," he said.

Allain was hoping the province would choose the $100-million proposal backed by Moncton's Bernard Cyr and Ashford Properties. The project would have been located downtown and included a new 150-room Marriott hotel, a casino and a 20,000 square-foot convention centre.

The announcement also calls into question the city's wish to build a convention centre in the downtown.

Supporters of downtown development will now increase their efforts to highlight the need for a new arena in the core of the city, said Allain.

"I think this is really important. We're going to double our efforts now -- we're certainly going to open the lines of communication with city hall," he said.

"Even with this temporary setback, downtown Moncton is alive and strong."

When contacted by the Times & Transcript, an employee at Sonco replied that in accordance with the terms and conditions of the proposal, the company is precluded from making any comment.

Sonco, a Maritime-based real estate company, has partnered with the U.S-based casino operator Navegante Group, as well as the publicly traded merchant bank Clairvest, and the Ontario company 2050631.

Boudreau was careful not to reveal many details of the project because the province and Sonco must sign a service provider agreement in the coming weeks.

Until that time, details of the other three proposals will not be released.

The four proposals were evaluated by five evaluation teams comprised of financial consults from KPMG LLP, industry experts from HLT Advisory Inc and select government of New Brunswick officials.

There were two components to the evaluation process -- a pass/fail component and a graded component. The first element considered the completeness of the bids, the proponents' experience and technical expertise and their financial capacity.

The other component looked at criteria such as the economic impact of each proposal.

"There was a very rigorous evaluation of all four proposals that were brought forward and obviously one proposal came to the top based on all the various criteria," said Boudreau.

New Brunswick will become the ninth province to have a casino.

Boudreau said the decision -- which was approved by cabinet yesterday morning -- said the announcement couldn't wait until after the municipal elections.

"Once the evaluation of all four proposals were done, evaluations included about 30 people who all signed conflict of interest waivers and confidentiality agreements, but you don't want something like this to be lingering for too long, so we said let's get this out there right away so we can get this up and running as soon as possible."

The proposal doesn't include any link to harness racing, although Boudreau said he's wiling to talk with officials about what can be done to assist the industry.

Paul Thompson, director of communications for the City of Moncton, said it's too soon to say whether the announcement impacts the idea of building a downtown convention centre.

"We're ecstatic that this is coming to Moncton -- it's great for the region, it's great for the province and with everything that's going on at Magnetic Hill, this is just another offering that adds to that entertainment mix," he said. "I think there's going to be a lot of different things that will happen there to appeal to a wide variety of people."

The casino, he said, will serve as a catalyst for further development and proves that Moncton is the place to be.

Valerie Roy, CEO of the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce, echoed concerns about the impact on downtown development.

"We hope this doesn't mean funding will not be available for anything we may want to do and actually fulfill the strategies that have been in place now for sometime," she said.

But she said she's pleased the project is coming to Moncton.

"Everybody feels this is very great news for Moncton, of course."

John Thompson of Enterprise Greater Moncton said the region shouldn't have any trouble filling the hundreds of jobs the project will create.

"I think the wages have to be in the area that competes within our service sector, and if we do that, obviously there's a workforce out there."

Thompson said it doesn't matter that the casino and its accompanying projects won't be located downtown as any development in the region is welcomed.

"This is going to have economic spin-offs for the regions and our service sector will benefit from this."

All of the four proponents were believed to have selected Metro Moncton as the most ideal site for a casino.

Dieppe Mayor Achille Maillet expressed disappointment that the one proposal that had planned to develop in Dieppe wasn't selected.

Maillet said he was told the Dieppe proposal was very competitive. As well, its proximity to the airport would have made it attractive to the "high-rollers," he said.

However he said he's pleased the casino is being built in Metro Moncton -- and praised the decision not to locate the casino in the downtown.

"You have to have a purpose to go there," he said, expressing concern for compulsive gamblers.

Boudreau also reiterated the number of sites with VLTs will be reduced by more than half from 625 to 300, while the number of machines will be cut from 2,650 to 2,000.

The machines will be removed from dining establishments beginning in October.

Boudreau also said details on licensing charities to hold Texas Hold 'Em tournaments will be released in the coming days.