A long standing dispute between the operator of Casino By Vanshaw and their landlord has taken a turn for the worse as customers will be met with locked doors upon arriving at the establishment. The six year conflict between Vanshaw Enterprises Limited and the landlord for their casino Mayfield Investments Limited has resulted in a temporary closure that could become permanent if a resolution is not made.
The casino is located inside of the Medicine Hat Lodge Hotel, with a lease agreement that was altered back in 2010 with an amendment that was agreed upon by both parties. This amendment allowed for Mayfield Investments Limited to control an interior lounge area inside of the casino, and in exchange the casino was given a debt forgiveness of $100,000 for the agreement. On the other end, Mayfield had agreed to pay 20% of all profits earned in the lounge area.
The disagreement results from the fact that the casino is no longer using this lounge space since it was changed in the amended lease agreement, but they are still paying the same amount of rent with a monthly lump sum of $61,000 resulting in an annual rent amount of $732,000. Vanshaw argues that their rent needs to be prorated since they aren’t using the space anymore and shouldn’t be paying for Mayfield to use it, while Mayfield argues that the revised lease doesn’t change the amount of rent paid. This conflict ended up placing the pair in court.
A judge out of Calgary had agreed that Mayfield Investments Limited was correct in stating that the rental amount was not to change based off of the amendment to the lease agreement because there wasn’t an amendment to the amount of rent paid when the parties reached this agreement. However, it was recommended that the parties reach some sort of agreement because if this dispute results in Casino By Vanshaw shutting down it is going to effect Mayfield’s business. The best result would be to reach an agreement where Vanshaw will pay past rent owed but the payments won’t be above what they can afford so that the casino doesn’t go under.
It seems that Mayfield has not taken the advice of the court, and has shut down the casino themselves. They locked the doors and are refusing to allow the casino to continue to operate in their hotel. They have decided to terminate the lease under the premise that Vanshaw Enterprises Limited has not paid their rent. This may be an attempt to get the casino to cough up the money, or perhaps Mayfield will be closing the casino permanently and will be seeking a new partner for the area.
This seems to depend on the response from Vanshaw. There was a note on the doors of the casino that states that this closure is meant to only last a few days until a resolution is reached, however the note has since been removed.
