Casino change of plans is news to land owner

It was the first Walt Spivak had heard of any possible change in Gateway Casino’s plan to build a 10,000-square-metre facility on the land he owns on Wonderland Road in southwest London, Ont.

“I read that in the paper this morning and I was as surprised as anybody else. I've had no communication with Gateway to the fact that they're not going on that site,” Spivak says.

Gateway Casino Director of Communications Rob Mitchell would not confirm or deny the report in The London Free Press that suggests the casino will stay at its Western Fair District location and expand, rather than build the new facility on Wonderland Road.

On Wednesday, Mitchell told CTV News London, "The focus of our business at our London Fairground location and all our Gateway Casinos is on customer engagement and providing the best gaming experience we possibly can.”

There have been delays in the start of the construction attributed to the pandemic, but Spivak says they have worked with Gateway to accommodate the troubled financial waters of COVID-19.

“We gave them a reprieve because of COVID with the expectation that once casinos were able to open again, that they would start construction. The Ellis-Don trailers are all on site is mobilized on site, there was steel on site, and then obviously, there's been a stall,” he explains.

The Wonderland Road site was selected after Gateway, the City of London and Western Fair could not come to a lease agreement that would allow Gateway to expand its facility.

Western Fair declined comment when contacted Wednesday afternoon.