The temporary closure of Golden Eagle Bingo Hall is on the horizon.
Wauzhushk Onigum Nation is set to start transforming Golden Eagle Bingo Hall in the new year with the closure of the current Hall. The current plan right now is for the entire building to be gutted right down to the steel frame and with renderings released today, the building will be split into two spaces with a common entrance area for the facility.
One side will be a redesigned Golden Eagle Bingo Hall with space to fit over 350 people with additional spaces for community functions and events. The other side will be leased out to Gateway Casinos operating a gaming centre.
Norman Jaehrling Senior Development Advisor for Wauzhushk Onigum stated in an interview with 101.3 The Gap “we are announcing a transformational project for the community, one that’s been many years in the making that will involve the complete reconstruction of the Golden Eagle Building which was originally born as an arena and has been used as a charitable bingo hall for 30 years and was in need of a significant reinvestment.”
“While looking for ways to revitalize this building and continue its use as a community centre and a gathering place while accommodating the bingo operations, we began to develop a relationship with Gateway Casinos who were looking to establish a facility in the Kenora area.” Jaehrling stated.
“We spent the last three years building a working relationship and exploring the option of having them come here and reestablish a full-service casino operation in the community and we were able to come to that agreement earlier this year and include quite a few other related arrangements.” He also stated, “we finally came to a place with financial plans, head leases have been signed for the large business park, sub leases have been negotiated for the commercial tenant and partnership with gateway, and we are ready to launch the process of redeveloping in the new year.”
As asked by 101.3 The Gap for the Timeline: Looking at the Fall of 2026 for reopening. The work on the base building will be stripping it down to the bare shell and reconstructing the roof, wall systems, and then the interior improvements, Wauzhushk Onigum will finish the golden eagle side of the space for Bingo Hall and community use and then in the next couple months Tennant Gateway will move in with an unfinished space and will invest and finish any leasehold improvements for a full service casino.
A Spokesperson for Gateway Casinos was present and said that discussions started in 2022, and at that point it was a concept, and it has taken a lot of work, but the work has been driven by leadership to get to this next phase. There is no clarity on whether or not Gateway will only have slots, or table games added.
The current smoking-room space in the Golden Eagle Bingo Hall will house the new Gateways Casino. Golden Eagle staff have stated that the Bingo Hall side will continue to house both non-smoking and smoking rooms as almost 80% of bingo players sit in the smoking side of the hall currently.
There is no timeline as to when Golden Eagle will officially close, but it’s expected to be in the first couple of months in 2026.
