VANCOUVER-Las Vegas-based Paragon Development recently hired IBI/HB Architects and the Rockwell Group to help design its $450 million casino complex here. The company hopes to start next year on the project, which will be attached to BC Palace, the 60,000-seat downtown stadium.

The company already owns the Edgewater Casino downtown, which the firm purchased in September 2006. Though the company still advertises on its Web site that it wants to make Edgewater “the premier entertainment destination in the Greater Vancouver area,” the company will reportedly close Edgewater once the new project opens in 2013. Paragon also owns the River Cree Resort casino outside of Edmonton, Alberta and Eagle River Casino in Alberta.

The project is to include 620 rooms in two hotels, five restaurants and more than 100,000 square feet of gaming space, according to a Paragon statement. A company official did not return a phone call for this story.

Locally-based IBI/HB is known for its work at the Residences at Hotel Georgia, Opus Hotel and the BC Cancer Research Center. The New York City-based Rockwell Group is the design firm behind the Lincoln Center’s Film Society, the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, W New York Hotels and Crystals at CityCenter in Las Vegas.