Starlight plans ambitious expansion
The expanded Starlight Casino will be a “Vegas glitzy” operation with restaurants and lounges designed to draw in non-gamblers as well as people keen to wager, the general manager said.
The West Edmonton Mall development will be Alberta’s largest casino by the time construction is finished in August, growing to 15,000 square metres from the 9,300-square-metre footprint of the Palace Casino it’s replacing, general manager Kevin Booth said.
There are coloured lights shining on the expanded entrance, a fancy interactive gaming area that combines slot machine terminals, DJs and dancers, and a circular Nova Bar decorated in similar colours to one in the Flamingo Las Vegas hotel, he said. “The Starlight is supposed to be the Vegas-glitzy thing … The Starlight brand is supposed to be as close to Vegas as you can get with our company.”
The casino will have capacity for 32 gaming tables, eight poker tables, 850 slot machines and about 2,000 customers, including restaurants. The total workforce will grow to 500 people from 200 at the Palace.
Booth is particularly excited about Halley’s Club, set to welcome its first customers in May beside the Match Eatery across the lobby from the casino.
Designed to resemble an oldstyle night club, Halley ’s has tables on two levels, a bar topped by a stage and space for a baby grand piano in the corner.
“The concept we’re coming up with is new music done the old way … You could have dinner with a band playing ’30s, ’40s music, maybe dancers,” he said, adding they’re lining up a pool of 15 to 20 musicians and might also present 1980s tribute bands or comedy. We’re in the entertainment business now as much as the casino business. This is something that’s a whole different venue altogether.”
The $57-million expansion was originally scheduled to cost $45 million and be completed in 2016, but other projects came up, said Tanya Gabara, a spokesperson for parent company Gateway Casinos & Entertainment.
The Burnaby, B.C.-based chain — which also owns the downtown Grand Villa Casino — needed to work with 15 new locations bought after the overhaul was announced, she said. “That changed the dynamics and added to the development planning. Also, this was a very complicated project because we remained open.”
Booth said the Starlight will be one of the mall’s biggest tenants, and he expects a big impact from the redesigned facility. “The Palace was the casino in the mall. Now we’re the entertainment in the mall.”