Gateway project pushed to 2003. (Sault Ste. Marie).

Sault Ste. Marie's Gateway waterfront development project is still underway, but opening day has been delayed to fall of 2003 at the earliest, provided everything goes according to plans.

"I wouldn't want to rule out fall of 2003," says Don McConnell, planning director for the City of Sault Ste. Marie. "It may be an advantage to be open for the fall color tours."

He says the timing will depend on provincial funding approvals that the city has yet to request, and the speed at which they are processed will be beyond the city's control.

The intention is to tap into $15 million in Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. funds set aside for the development of a four-season tourist attraction.

MagiCorp Entertainment Inc., a Toronto-based leisure-facility development company, has found significant private-sector investment, says McConnell.

On board since November 2001, "Magioorp has found a developer who will undertake responsibility for the project. They will be the lead developer, (and) will develop the entire project, including the hotel."

McConnell declined comment on who the developer is. MagiCorp designs, builds and operates entertainment complexes. The seven-year-old company has developed such properties in North America, Europe and Asia.

"This project has taken longer than anybody had originally anticipated," McConnell says, "but assembling sufficient financing and conducting appropriate due diligence is critical to the project's success, and that's what's happening now; making sure they're getting all their financing and partnership agreements in place."

Conceptual and business plans were expected to go before city council last spring, but McConnell now considers that original timeline somewhat ambitious.

"The proposal for late spring was overly optimistic. I think probably January is more realistic for a presentation to council on this project."

"It's our intent to go to city council and the province with all of the private sector financing in place. With all the financing in place, we would hope that this would be a fairly quick decision - that the province would look on the project favorably and quickly."

The development project, adjacent to Casino Sault Ste. Marie, is intended to include an anchor attraction - the entertainment component - accompanied by a hotel, restaurants and retail outlets.

"The conceptual and business studies have been pretty much completed," McConnell says, with the exception of the final corporate structure and detailed financing arrangements.

"Discussions on those items are underway now - who owns what and who's putting money into what part."

He estimates the total project will cost about $40 million.

The exact details of the entertainment component have not been hammered out, but McConnell says it will be similar in size and scale to Science North in Sudbury, and projected attendance figures suggest it will receive about the same number of visitors a year.

"The current estimates are similar to Science North and we have had those estimates confirmed by an outside source."

MagiCorp is the third development company to become involved in the Gateway project. The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, owners of Michigan's Kewatin Casinos, signed on originally, but were unable to continue because they were concentrating their resources on a new casino in Detroit, explains McConnell.

The project then passed to First Gulf Development Corp. of Mississauga, but differences of opinion led to an amicable parting, McConnell says, in the summer of 2000.

"Then we hired MagiCorp, and they have brought some additional partners to the table," getting the project rolling again.