You may or may not remember: Bloomington was supposed to get a gigantic water park just north of the Mall of America. But, you know, COVID. However, things have changed and that “Supposed to” has turned into a “probably will, provided it can overcome some challenges.
Here’s Five Fast Facts About Bloomington’s Water Park:
- 🏖️What Waterpark? - The entire project was proposed in 2018. The multi-story park is roughly 335,000 square feet. The original cost was projected at $250M. The project came to a halt when COVID hit.
- 👙Inflatable - Things started moving in March of this year when the Bloomington City Council has approved $55 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to help pay for the construction. Oh, and BTW, it’s now projected to cost $422M. Blame inflation?
- 🌎Wheeler Dealer - The city threw in another $10M in TIF financing in exchange for 31 acres of land (no mule) east of the mall, because they want to use it as part of their plan to host the 2027 World’s Fair. That’s still a thing?
- 🌊Wait, What? - $317M of the total cost is being covered privately, with up to $110M projected to come out of our pockets. That’s a pretty expensive public toilet.
- 🩴Tick Tock - Time is running out for part of that money they’re after. A state provision that gives cities more flexibility in how they spend TIF money expires at the end of the year.
🔥Bottom line: Is this thing gonna happen or not? They can only mess around with something of this size before the bottom falls out. Hopefully they decide soon because I have a feeling we all have better ways to spend our money.
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