Wet start for water park

November 11, 2006
By HEATHER GILLERS Staff Writer, Beacon News
YORKVILLE -- Fittingly, things started out wet.

Huddled beneath umbrellas and windbreakers under a driving rain, about 40 Yorkville residents gathered Friday to celebrate the start of work on a regional water park planned at Route 47 and Galena Road.

"Today is a day that will go down in Yorkville's history," said Yorkville Economic Development Corporation Director Lynn Dubajic before heading from the water-park site to a ground-breaking ceremony for a regional mall. "Both projects have the potential to be draws ... and to be the cornerstones for tourism and regional shopping."

The mall, an 800,000-square-foot center planned at Route 34 and Cannonball Trail, is expected to boast a Target, Home Depot, Kohl's, and other stores and restaurants.

Dubbed "Kendall Marketplace," the $135 million project will be a unique facility in Kendall County, Dubajic said.

The 43-acre water park, dubbed "Raging Waves," is expected to include five water slides and a wave pool and accommodate an average of 3,000 visitors per day between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

The developers behind the mall are Chicago-based Harlem Irving Cos. and Oakbrook-based Mid-America Development. The Hanover Park-based Lundmark group is building the water park.

Taxes, traffic
City officials have long anticipated the tax revenue both projects are expected to bring to city coffers.
Developers predict the mall will generate about $1.1 million in sales taxes and $3.2 million in real-estate taxes in its first year alone. No predictions were available for the water park.

The new revenue streams could help pay for city services for thousands of new residents. Yorkville's population of nearly 12,000 has doubled in the past five years.

Proposals for both projects received largely positive responses from residents earlier this year. Citizens polled on what kinds of economic development they would most like to see in Yorkville consistently mention department stores and youth recreational opportunities.

Some residents have expressed concerns about adding traffic to Route 47, a strained thoroughfare that runs past the water-park site and near the mall location.

But the city could see progress as early as this year on a project to alleviate congestion on the road. The state Legislature will likely reconsider Gov. Rod Blagojevich's capital construction bill, which includes funding to widen the portion of Route 47 that runs through downtown Yorkville.

'A nice day'
The water park could open as early as May 2007, but on Friday both project locations were barren and muddy.

At the mall site, land slated to become stores and parking spaces is covered in grass. At the water-park site, where rides are expected to reach 70 feet into the air, a lone yellow tractor towered above the weeds.

Officials' faces, however, were triumphant beneath their raincoats.

"Any day that I can break ground is a nice day," Prochaska said, "regardless of what the weather is like."