A rendering of what the new Cascades Casino Chatham is expected to look like (Photo taken from https://www.gatewaycasinos.com)A rendering of what the new Cascades Casino Chatham is expected to look like (Photo taken from https://www.gatewaycasinos.com)
Chatham

Site Plan Approved For Chatham Casino

The location for Chatham's new casino has been officially approved.

The application for site plan control for Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Limited’s proposed “Cascades Casino” was unanimously approved at Monday night's council meeting.

The application permits the construction of a 45,280 sq ft casino, including two restaurants and a patio, at 615 Richmond St. in Chatham.

According to Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Limited CEO Tony Santo, construction on the new casino will likely begin this spring, with an expected completion date of mid-2019. He says the proposed casino will feature over 300 slots and ten table games, with two of Gateway’s signature restaurant brands MATCH Eatery & Public House and The Buffet.

Mayor Randy Hope says this is a major step for the project and now that the site plan approval is done, the company can start breaking ground.

"It's about us getting the site plan approval, getting the Government of Ontario to give the final sanction and then they can get in the ground," he says. "If we're lucky, within ten months we'll be welcoming a new casino with 200 jobs, plus the spin-off jobs, plus the new revenues coming into the municipality."

Paul Szaszkiewicz with Cumulus Architects Inc. gave a brief presentation at the council meeting. He says the new casino will have a "spectacular interior" with an exterior that reflects the community and its surroundings, featuring locally-sourced materials like wood.

Hope thinks the new casino will fit in nicely in Chatham.

"[Gateway] really wants to be apart of a community, feel blended in, [and] make sure it's not only a casino, but it's also family venue with the restaurants and other things," explains Hope. "They want to be apart of a family and a community. I mean we're proud that we're the first one of the new builds that are going on."

Hope says he is extremely pleased with the work of the company and has enjoyed working with them.

"We're going to continue to build those relationships. We're going to continue to build a relationship with Dresden to deal with the harness racing and promote harness racing and get it back on the map where it should be. This needs to be a win for everybody," says Hope.

He says it is so important that the entire community prospers from this initiative moving forward.

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