Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Ask Mr. Sun:

Plans for a new water park in Las Vegas?

Sun Topics

Hey Mr. Sun,

Are there any plans for a new water park in Las Vegas?

•••

The closure of Wet ’n Wild, billed as an “aquatic Disneyland” when it opened in 1985, left a void in the lives of sunburn-seeking Las Vegans when it shut down in 2004.

It’s impossible to know all the ideas that lurk in the minds of Southern Nevada developers. But nothing on the scale of Wet ’n Wild will open before summer arrives.

In 2006, Disney and Universal Studios veterans announced plans for Las Vegas Wet, a resort featuring “the largest indoor water park in North America” and indoor ski slopes, to open on Las Vegas Boulevard south of Interstate 215 in 2008 or 2009.

Needless to say billion-dollar loans are tough to come by today and Las Vegas Wet is now projecting a 2012 opening.

Investors will undoubtedly scrutinize whether there’s enough tourist demand for wicked water slides to justify the plan. About 80 percent of Wet ’n Wild’s customers were locals.

Archon Corp., which owns the 27-acre parcel that was home to Wet ’n Wild, plans to build a resort-casino on that property eventually. The company found that it was more profitable to lease the land to a developer for construction equipment storage than it was to rent to a water park operator, according to a company executive.

Questions for Mr. Sun should be sent to [email protected].

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