Wet ‘n’ Wild water park brand returning to Las Vegas

The planned park, which had been known as Splash Canyon, is set to open in May.

Construction of the $50 million park in southwest Las Vegas is already under way with offsite utilities, roadwork, infrastructure and excavation of the wave pool and other areas.

The land will be leased from The Howard Hughes Corp.

Investors in the park include Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf; Dr. Steven and Karen Thomas of the Thomas and Mack family; Roger and Scott Bulloch of SPB Capital Partners; Steve Miller; and Australian entertainment conglomerate Village Roadshow Limited.

Village Roadshow Limited will take a 51 percent ownership stake and also manage the park. Village Roadshow Theme Parks is also developing a $115 million Wet ‘n’ Wild super park in Sydney.

“We are very excited to bring this amazing new water park to the perfect city that is Las Vegas,” Tom Fisher, chief executive officer of Village Roadshow Theme Parks said in a statement. “The park will feature some of the world’s most incredible slides and will offer and experience unlike anything Las Vegas residents and visitors have ever seen.”

In the statement, Fisher said the Las Vegas park expects 650,000 customers annually.

The 41-acre park, at 7055 S. Fort Apache Road near the Las Vegas Beltway and Sunset Road, will feature more than 25 slides and attractions, including North America’s first Rattler slide and also Canyon Cliffs, touted as a “gut-wrenching 60-foot freefall at speeds up to 33 feet per second.”

For many Las Vegans, the Wet ‘n’ Wild brand is associated with the longtime water park of the same name on the Strip.

When it opened in 1985, Wet ‘n Wild was heralded as an “aquatic Disneyland” that would expand the city’s tourism base by appealing to visiting families with young children. Las Vegas-based Archon Corp. owned the 27-acre parcel and closed the water park in 2004 for a planned megaresort.

“The local government and business support we have received for this project has been unprecedented,” Fisher’s statement said. “In particular, County Commission Chair Susan Brager has offered her full support for this project, and we are confident this will be another hugely successful attraction for Las Vegas.”

The park will require an estimated 200 to 300 construction jobs. There will also be between 300 and 500 jobs in the park when it opens.