ROCKWALL – Should Rockwall leaders contract with Hawaiian Falls for a family waterpark and possibly new year-round adventure park, which will provide hundreds more jobs and potentially launch an economic boom unlike the city has ever seen, drawing additional businesses and thousands of visitors from miles around?
If you’d like Hawaiian Falls in Rockwall, then you’d better hurry and urge your City Council members or city manager to sign a contract before the family entertainment company decides to build elsewhere.
Hawaiian Falls President Dave Busch says the family-entertainment company is very interested in building a water park in Rockwall but City leaders haven’t seemed very interested, after several meetings have been held beginning last summer.
If the City doesn’t express more interest quickly, he said they will seek a contract with a neighboring city. He said they have already found at least one which clearly wants a Hawaiian Falls water park in their community and is willing to sign a contract quickly.
Hawaiian Falls’ theme is “Bringing Families Closer Together.” Water parks are designed to be small enough for parents to keep an eye on their children, but large enough to offer several thrill rides for teens and adults. Water parks are already being operated successfully in Garland, The Colony, Mansfield, Roanoke and Waco, with construction underway for additional parks in Pflugerville and White Settlement.
Each park creates 30-50 full-time jobs and 250-300 summer jobs. Generally the cities fund construction of the parks with a bond that is paid off in about 20 years with revenue from the park. Each city gets five percent of the gross revenue from its park through a partnership with Busch. The parks typically attract 300,000 visitors per year and have already proven to be an economic boom to several of the cities which have contracted with Hawaiian Falls.
From sources who have asked their names not yet be used, city staff and city council members are apparently hesitant to incur more debt and don’t want to ask voters to approve a bond due to current indebtedness and the water shortage.
Yet parks are doing well in four other cities and two more have contracted with Hawaiian Falls to build water parks.
What do you think?
By J.J. Smith