Fort Lauderdale’s City Commission has approved Premier Parks LLC as the successful bidder to lease and develop a 64 acres site including the Lockhart Stadium.
Premier Parks will develop the land around the stadium into a $60 million water park (Wet ‘n’ Wild Fort Lauderdale) reports South Florida Business Journal. Â The plans will include renovating the stadium in an attempt to attract more events.
Premier Parks owns the nearby Rapids Water Park in West Palm Beach – which is the nearest large-scale waterpark.
The bid package by Premier Parks states that the project would have an annual economic impact of $50 million, create 75 to 100 full-time jobs, and support 800 to 1,000 seasonal employees.
Premier Parks would work with Aquatic Development Group – acting as the designer – and Proslide – as the provider of the water rides. ProSlide procured all of the slides for the new Volcano Bay Water Park in Orlando. Premier Parks would also partner with Cartaya & Associates Architects, and planning firm Chen Moore and Associates.
The water park will contain a tidal river, an adventure river with waterfalls and geysers and numerous waterslides. Â Among the slides will be Giant Mammoth River Twin Slides, a Super Loop and an Octopus Racer.
There will also be mini wave pools and slides for guests under seven in an area called Wet ‘n’ Wild Junior.
Premier Parks proposed a 50-year lease with a base rent that would be the greater of $825,000 a year or 4 percent of gross revenue. It estimated the annual operating expenses would exceed $30 million.
Construction would take 12 to 15 months and create 400 to 500 jobs.
Premier Parks is a New-Jersey based company led by the former CEO of Six Flags, Kieran Burke. It owns and operates 15 theme and water parks in North America – including Wet ‘n’ Wild Toronto.
Image Courtesy of Rapids Water Park via Facebook
https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2017/08/23/city-selects-firm-to-build-60m-wet-n-wild-fort.html
