While I do know the name of the real estate broker asking questions about this project, I have a feeling they are not the ‘real player’ in this deal. I believe they are a hired gun to do some nosing around.
I guess whoever is exploring this has been asking what the city would be willing to invest. I’m not sure if that is a public private partnership, a TIF, tax rebates or all of the above. I do know they want to build it ‘around’ the Sanford Sports Complex area.
The city already loses around a cool half million on the MAC a year, and I can’t see us investing in this. I guess I could see Sanford chipping in since they have already mentioned they may want to build an indoor pool at the sports complex.
But an indoor water park is a whole other ball of wax. On the cheap you might be able to build a stand alone facility for around $35 million, but if you want all the bells and whistles you are looking at well over $50 million.
Could it make money? I believe it could in the long run, but your initial investment might be a little hard to come up with.
We have seen this quite often in Sioux Falls, big ideas and big projects but when it comes to getting the investors, it falls through. We saw this with Village on the River who asked to reduce the size of the project.
It amazes me with the billions of dollars we hold in South Dakota for private trusts that we can’t somehow find a way to tap into that money. Oh that’s right, the state is controlled by anti-tax right wingers.
l3wis 