Marke Andrews
Sun
The new Edgewater Casino at the Plaza of Nations, which opens Thursday, is housed in the old Enterprise Hall building.
CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun Edgewater Casino owners, Len Libin (left) and Gary Jackson prepare for Thursday’s opening.
With 30 years between them in the casino business, and a downtown location which should entice city folks to stop driving to the suburbs to gamble, the owners of the new Edgewater Casino are expecting big things from their new venture, which opens Thursday at the Plaza of Nations.
“One big advantage we have over all the casinos here is that, because of the quality of the facility we’re opening, for the first time a casino in Vancouver will appeal to the tourists here,” says Len Libin, who will run Edgewater Casino with partner Gary Jackson.
“Having slot machines, this will be the first time we will have a real opportunity to take advantage of the tourist trade.”
Libin and Jackson have put $20 million into the first phase of the Edgewater facility. Phase Two includes plans to use the 500-seat theatre, once part of Expo 86’s B.C. Pavilion, for film, entertainment, pay-per-view sports events and public speakers. The outdoor plaza stage will also be used for entertainment events.
Libin ran Grand Casino in south Vancouver, which closed just before the Edgewater opening. Many of the Grand Casino employees will be at the new casino. Jackson previously ran Royal Diamond Casino, which closed three years ago.
When Edgewater opens Thursday, it will only be the third casino within city limits. Smaller casinos are located at the Holiday Inn on West Broadway, and at the Mandarin in Chinatown, although Libin says the Mandarin will soon move to Langley. Slot machines will be installed at Exhibition Park, likely in the summer, but the racetrack will not have gaming tables.
Edgewater’s biggest competition comes from suburban gaming houses, in particular River Rock Casino in Richmond, which has 1,000 slot machines, 70 gaming tables and a poker room with 20 tables.
By comparison, Edgewater has the same square footage as River Rock (70,000 square feet), but fewer slots (600), gaming tables (48) and poker tables (four).
“Frankly, I don’t know if you compete with [River Rock],” said Libin. “What we’re going to do is open and offer the best product we can.”
Edgewater is housed in the old glass-exterior Enterprise Hall building at the Plaza of Nations. Because the city has designated the building a legacy structure, which means no changes can be made to the building’s exterior, Vancouver architect Patrick Cotter faced a difficult task when he embarked on a $14 million renovation.
Cotter’s solution was to create an inner membrane, set five feet inside the exterior glass wall, which housed a new heating and ventilation system that would keep the building from acting like a greenhouse.
It would also permit the gaming area to be properly lit inside the membrane.
“In order to meet the operating requirements of the casino, we created a second skin within the building,” said Cotter, who has also designed the Great Canadian Casino in Coquitlam and View Royal Casino in Victoria.
The architect also installed a computer-controlled LED lighting system within the membrane, which can produce various effects, from simulated Northern Lights to strobe effects.
“This was a way we could enclose the space and leave the glass transparent,” said Cotter.
Whereas the Coquitlam and Victoria casinos were theme-oriented, Edgewater is more contemporary.
“We wanted to work with the essential characteristics of the building: downtown location, water, glass, light,” said Cotter. “We wanted it to be fairly crisp and contemporary, and that is not a traditional approach to casino design.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
