The Parq Vancouver, a luxury casino complex that opened to fanfare in 2017, announced it has successfully refinanced its debt amid increasing financial pressure and missed debt payments.

In a statement, the company says it has refinanced its loans with a fixed rate, long-term financing structure and reduced its interest payments.

The owners of the building took on about $450 million of debt in order to build the casino complex, which also includes two luxury hotels, eight restaurants and a conference centre.

Some of those loans had interest rates between 7.5 to 12 per cent. It generated interest payments so large — about $30 million a quarter — that any income the complex generated during its first operating year was effectively wiped out.

The high interest rates on its current loans were because the casino hadn't been built yet, Hood added. Now that the building is built and operated, there is less risk involved and it can justify getting a lower rate of interest.

The complex had to defer payment on one of its loans twice, most recently on Monday, April 29.