Paragon Is Selling Its Stake In Downtown Lotusland's Casino Industrial Complex.

TheEndOfThe
MarathonVille


Well, well, well, whadd'ya know...

The fine folks from Vegas have cashed in their chips.

Scott Brown of Postmedia had the story late last week. Here is his lede:  

Paragon Gaming, the Las Vegas-based developer and gaming operator that spearheaded the construction of the $640-million Parq casino, is selling its stake in the Vancouver resort.

Paragon announced Friday that its ownership shares have been purchased by PBC Group, a real estate development company headquartered in Ottawa, for an undisclosed amount of money.

PBC Group was one of the casino’s three original partners along with Paragon and Dundee Corporation, a Toronto-based holding company.

Paragon managed the former Edgewater casino, located in Vancouver’s Plaza of Nations, for more than 10 years before the relocation of gaming operations to Parq Vancouver, at which time Parq assumed all management functions.

Parq, which opened in September 2017, contains two Marriott-branded hotels, a 63,000-square-foot conference centre and 65,000 square feet of casino space spread out over two floors with 600 slot machines and 75 game tables...


Of course, not all the folks who were part of Paragon's Vancouver adventure were from Vegas as Bob Mackin noted not too long ago in a story wherein he also highlighted the dispute over what Paragon called a 'gaming table'.

For example there was the very fine Mr. Graydon:

...BCLC pumped $32.5 million in subsidies into the B.C. Place casino’s parkade. The funds came from a facilities development commission scheme created under the NDP in 1997 and amended in 2006 under the BC Liberals to stimulate casino renovation and expansion. Campbell led the BC Liberals to power in 2001 on a platform that included a broken promise to not expand gambling.

In 2012, BCLC CEO Michael Graydon asked for the BC Liberal government’s approval to temporarily increase the additional accelerated development commission from 3% to 5% and accelerated facility development commission from 2% to 4% through March 31, 2017. BCLC normally pays a 25% commission on slot machine “net win” (another way of saying the money lost by gamblers) and 40% on table game net win.

In Graydon’s Sept. 12, 2012 letter to GPEB Assistant Deputy Minister Douglas Scott, he said the $73.4 million, 1,200-stall parkade beside B.C. Place needed BCLC help. City hall required it be built underground, which “has significantly increased the project construction costs impacting the economics of the project when compared to similar facilities developed in suburban areas.”

Graydon’s April 11, 2013 letter to BC Liberal gambling minister Rich Coleman said Edgewater forecast a negative impact of $4.6 million each year through the end of March 2015, while the new location was under construction...

{snip}

...In another pre-election move in 2013, the BC Liberals cut Paragon’s $6 million-a-year lease in half to $3 million, after city council’s 2011 restriction changed the casino’s business plan.

Graydon quit BCLC in late January 2014 to become president of PV Hospitality, the Paragon company building the casino. A Finance Ministry internal investigation later found Graydon in conflict of interest for negotiating his switch to the BCLC casino partner while still head of the Crown corporation....


Still having a hard time placing the good Mr. Graydon?

Well, it turns out he was the very same BC Liberal-appointed BCLC guy who amplified then BC Liberal Minister of Everything Rich Coleman's trashing of Surrey council for having the audacity to act democratically to turn down their own casino industrial complex back in 2013.

F. A. Bula had the story at the time in the Globe:

The CEO of the B.C. Lottery Corporation is “dumbfounded” that Surrey’s mayor and councillors turned down a casino after having given the corporation and the developer, he says, clear signals for three years that they wanted one.

“Something transpired in the last few days and I don’t know what,” said Michael Graydon in the wake of a surprise 5-4 vote at 2 a.m. Saturday to reject the casino licence for a luxury hotel and convention centre development planned near the Surrey highway that leads to the U.S. border...

{snippety doo-dah}

...Mr. Graydon said he and everyone involved in the process say the decision seemed strange, especially given that the opposition to the Surrey casino was a fraction of what it had been in Vancouver two years ago.

In contrast to Surrey, he said Vancouver councillors send clear signals weeks ahead of a vote that they had doubts about a casino expansion...

{snippety doodle-dandy}

...Mr. Graydon said the corporation isn’t going to invest any more energy in Surrey. Instead, it will wait to see whether any of the communities bordering Surrey – either of the first nations communities, plus Delta or Langley – are interested in building a casino...


Imagine that!


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More on Paragon's 'second (BC Liberal-connected) man' to come...


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