WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – If you build it, they will come. The Splash Aqua Park is going up this week in Wichita.
“It’s an extremely exciting development,” said James Clendenin with the Wichita City Council. “It’s wonderful to see someone taking interest in a brand new developments south of Kellogg.”
Splash Aqua Park will give people a chance to bounce, jump and splash on the lake when it opens this May. The park will hold up to 200 people at a time to play in the water.
The water park is one piece of a larger, $200 million dollar development that will eventually include restaurants and shops.
“This development is going in an area that property taxes are very low,” said Clendenin. “And putting in a commercial development just raises the value of that property.”
Cole Kalkbrenner lived in Australia for several years recently and says his group put together a park like Aqua Splash in the land down under.
“We’re excited to grow with this development and grow with Wichita so we just keep plugging away,” said Kalkbrenner.
Aqua Splash will have more than 75 different features in the water. It will be $15 for a session and they hope to have it open by Memorial weekend.
Right now Kalkbrenner and others are putting the anchors in the water for the different features with names like Chaos, Neptune and Catapult.
While the features are made of tough materials, they are making sure the park is well anchored into the lake off South Seneca and I-235. Kansas wind could always be an issue so they will use anchors of 600 pounds each, with up to six anchors to a feature.
“We did this off the coast of Australia, in Port McCory,” said Kalkbrenner. “And we had 25 to 40 mph winds right off the sea, so, just like Kansas.”
Aqua Splash Park will be the first major part of retail to open at the entire Steeple Bay development in the Crossgate District in south Wichita. Clendenin points to Camping World and Gander Outdoor as developments set to open soon within that same development.
Both are expected to open the first or second week of June.
