Sudbury city council has voted to move forward with the next phase of the Kingsway Entertainment District (KED) project, which is slated to host a new Gateway Casinos and Entertainment site.

CBC reports a 7-6 vote supported a motion to begin site preparation for the $100-million project, which is expected to include an arena and hotel in addition to the casino, before the end of November.

Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh abstained from the vote, but a city clerk said an abstention counts as a no vote.

Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan said waiting on blasting and preparing the site for the development would mean longer delays. “We need to approve this so we can hit the 2024 target,” he said.

David Shelsted, the city’s director of engineering services, said blasting would need to begin by winter to keep the project on track. “Blasting is a relatively good thing to do over the winter time,” he said. “It’s not temperature dependent like concrete pouring, asphalt placement or steel erection would be.”

Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger also supported moving ahead with the project. “The partners that we’re moving forward with, they each have business cases.” Bigger said. “They each have commitments to others.”

The Sudbury Star reports that the staff report states that the site preparation will cost about $9.7 million, of which the city will be responsible for $5.9 million and Gateway will pay $2.2 million. The hotel, as yet unnamed, will cover $1.1 million of the site prep costs, while Dario Zulich, the developer, will pay $530,000.