City land acquired for casino parking

City council voted a final time on Monday to sell a piece of municipal land on Harper Rd., next to the site of the future casino, to allow extra room for casino parking.

The city is selling a bit more than one acre of a property at 586 Harper Rd. to Roshan Holdings, which owns the land that the new Shorelines Casino Peterborough will be built on.

Roshan also owns the land that new hotel next door to the casino, a Hampton Inn, will be built on.

Both the casino and hotel are expected to be built soon on Crawford Dr. at The Parkway. The city expects to make $111,600 plus HST on the sale of the land next door on Harper Rd.

At a meeting June 19, councillors gave preliminary approval to the sale of the city-owned land. On Monday, council voted a final time.

There was no pecuniary interest declared from anyone on council, prior to the vote on June 19; there was also no conflict declared by anyone on Monday, regarding that item.

Meanwhile Mayor Daryl Bennett is a director of a numbered company that owns the Liftlock Group of companies, which owns land nearby at 728 Rye St.

When asked by The Examiner on June 19 whether he should have declared a pecuniary interest, he said the sale of the land was of no benefit to him – and also that he was “a bit offended” by the question.

The final vote on the sale of the land wasn’t unanimous Monday: Coun. Diane Therrien and Coun. Gary Baldwin both voted against the sale.

The developer and operator of the new Shore lines Casino Peter borough is a company from Vancouver called Great Canadian Gaming Corp.

It has received all the permissions it needs from the city to begin construction, and they plan to start building the casino and hotel soon.