River Rock Casino Resort upgrades mark 20th anniversary

The marina at River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond. (Rigucci/Shutterstock)

Major upgrades are being rolled out at River Rock Casino Resort in North Richmond, coinciding with the casino-hotel resort’s 20th anniversary this week.

The resort officially opened to the public on June 25, 2004 to become one of Metro Vancouver’s largest entertainment destinations.

A major refresh of the resort’s offerings is currently well underway, including an expansion of its conference facilities to provide more space for meetings, events, and gatherings. Technical upgrades will also improve the River Rock Show Theatre, which accommodates up to nearly 1,000 spectators.

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The casino is seeing an upgrade from the expansion of the Jade room — with a range of new and diverse slot machines — and the floor layout will be refreshed. With 70,000 sq ft of gaming floor area, this is the largest casino in British Columbia, featuring 1,100 slot machines, 75 live table games, and 104 electronic table games.

Food and beverage offerings are in the process of being overhauled, including a new dedicated bar on the gaming floor, recent renovations to the buffet with à la carte offerings, and the opening later this year of the new KOI restaurant by restauranteur Michael Zhang, who is also behind Kanae, Yakiniku, and K Squared Mansion. This restaurant will be the resort’s most modern and elegant fusion dining experience.

But the biggest addition will be the allure of the new Gordon Ramsay Steak restaurant, also opening later this year, within the main atrium. It is amongst the first of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant locations within Canada, and will feature both indoor and outdoor dining areas with stunning views of the property’s marina.

The marina will be dredged later this year to enable the full reactivation of the facility’s 130 slips.

“We’re incredibly excited to introduce these enhancements at River Rock Casino Resort,” said Wayne Odegard, regional vice president of River Rock Casino Resort, in a statement.

“As a pioneer in gaming and hospitality in the market, and one of the very few entertainment resorts in British Columbia, we have always been proud of our resort and its robust amenities. These dynamic upgrades will not only provide our discerning guests with expanded choices but allow our special brand of hospitality to shine even brighter.”

River Rock Casino Resort’s largest expansion to date is the 2011 completion of a five-storey vertical expansion above the parkade structure closest to SkyTrain Bridgeport Station. This provided a secondary hotel wing, adding 193 guest rooms for an expanded capacity of nearly 400 guest rooms. During the construction process, the parkade remained operational.

The parkade adjacent to the transit hub has over 1,500 vehicle stalls, and serves the dual purpose of accommodating the needs of resort visitors and a park-and-ride facility, with daily rates set at $3.00.

In 2007, following a court decision, the Musqueam Indian Band gained the title to the land that the resort complex was built on, in addition to a $20 million cash settlement. Great Canadian Gaming Corporation’s lease for the resort complex expires in the early 2040s, with First Nations leadership previously expressing interest in pursuing a revenue-sharing agreement in the future.

The area is expected to see immense change over the coming years from the redevelopment of the adjacent Richmond Night Market site into a mixed-use commercial-only development significant hotel, office, retail, restaurant, and entertainment uses.

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