*~* Amusement Park "Wild Escape" to be Built in My Backyard *~* Hey,Hey,Paula

BY JULIE ANDERSON WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

COUNCIL BLUFFS - Trying to turn a soybean field on this city's south side into a $70 million amusement park has been a bit of a roller coaster ride.

More details about a proposed Council Bluffs amusement park, including its name, will be announced Thursday at the Omaha Children's Museum. Concept drawings and rotating displays of elements from planned rides, such as roller coaster cars, will be at the museum.

The museum has a separate traveling exhibit on theme parks through the summer.

There have been ups. Developers won city approval for the proposed park and stirred excitement in a metro area that hasn't had a permanent fix of Ferris wheels since 1994, when Omaha's Peony Park closed.

There have been downs. The first opening date developers proposed - May 2003 -passed with no visible progress. Developers still haven't shown proof of financing, but the bulk of the park now is scheduled to open in the spring of 2004.

And there have been a few twists along the way. The project got bigger as developers refined their plans, leading to delays in opening dates, said Steve Minard, president of Papa's Park LLC, the project's management company in Omaha.

"We've only got one chance to do it right," he said.

The proposed 77-acre park will be on the South Omaha Bridge Road near South 24th Street.

Most of the park now would be built over one year rather than five. And the structure to house two roller coasters and other indoor attractions would open at more than four times the size originally proposed for the first year.

Putting more attractions indoors is intended to extend the park's season.

But getting the park open within a year will require the developers to navigate a haunted maze of deadlines: finalize financing, complete the land purchase, gain a second street access through another property, design and build sewers, streets and parking, and bring in rides and other attractions.

A Dallas-based entertainment industry expert said a year is possible, but aggressive.

Generally, building an amusement park takes 15 to 18 months and requires good design, execution and construction management, said Michael Jenkins, president of Leisure and Recreation Concepts Inc., an entertainment industry design, consulting and management firm.

Building part of the park indoors would allow developers to work inside during the winter, said Jenkins, who did consulting work at Peony Park during its day.

Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan said the city has done everything it can to set the stage. But with no construction under way, he gets questions from people on both sides of the Missouri River who ask him when the park will open. "It is frustrating," he said.

But Minard said doubts about the project don't trouble him.

"We're going to build this park," he said. "The skepticism won't go away until it starts going up."

Minard said the developers will meet the city's July 15 deadline to prove they have the $12.5 million needed for the first phase of construction.

In fact, he said, the developers have full financing in place but are waiting until the package is finalized to lay out details.

Minard declined to disclose financing, other than to say the sources are both private and institutional investors.

Last summer, the developers discussed opening outdoor attractions in May 2003. If time ran out, they said then, they'd open indoor attractions in December 2003 and follow with outdoor elements in spring 2004.

To prepare the site for the new spring 2004 opening date, the developers need to produce engineering plans, connect to water, natural gas and power lines, and build streets, sewers and highway turn lanes.

Most of those steps require city or state approval, and so far developers haven't filed any applications for those permits.

Some steps will go quickly. Obtaining a permit to tap nearby 12-inch water mains, for example, will take just days. But designing, getting permits for and building a half-mile sanitary sewer extension could take six or more months, according to city officials.

Council Bluffs City Councilman Scott Belt said the city wouldn't have been able to finish all the infrastructure, including improvements to South 24th Street, in time for the park to open this year.

"Maybe in 2004, if you want to be optimistic," he said.

The developer, Minard, said the park's updated design and the fact that it involves new construction will make it quick to build.

Another time-saver will be the use of a pre-engineered structure, essentially an insulated fabric over an aluminum frame, to house the indoor attractions.

Similar structures shelter the main terminal at Denver International Airport and docking facilities for Donald Trump's riverboat casino in Indiana, said Al Povondra of Carlson West Povondra Architects in Omaha, the firm working on the building's design.

"It can be put up fairly quickly," he said.

The indoor portion of the park originally was to start at 70,000 square feet. Now the plan calls for a nine-story, 300,000- square-foot structure that would include at least 20 rides, more than Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America in the Minneapolis area. Also inside will be a two-story carousel, a food court and an arcade.

The outdoor park won't change much from earlier plans. Most of the rides have been ordered, securing the park a place on manufacturers' production schedules, Minard said.

"It's really going to unfold this summer," he said. "People are going to start seeing it, smelling it, tasting it."

===================================

This site is right in my backyard. Call me NOT a happy camper...

Show all stories by   Author:  53961 ( Click here )