| Prairie Rose owners want to bring Wild West to Park City
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Posted on Sun, Dec. 19, 2004
Theme park in works
Prairie Rose owners want to bring Wild West to Park City
BY TRAVIS HEYING
The Wichita Eagle
The owners of Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Supper say they intend to build a 30-acre cowboy theme park called Wild West World in Park City. Thomas and Cheryl Etheredge plan to break ground in May and open the theme park a year later. Its estimated cost is $15 million to $17 million. The park would eventually create up to 150 seasonal jobs and bring in an estimated $40 million to $50 million in its first five years, a consultant said.
"The American cowboy is one of our greatest opportunities for tourism. And because of that, Cheryl and I are putting 15 million dollars on the line," Thomas Etheredge said. "There's no greater icon than the American cowboy."
The park would be east of I-135 and south of 77th Street, south of Wichita Greyhound Park. Purchase agreements were finalized Saturday for the Etheredges to buy nearly 100 acres with options on 40 more. The final sale price was not disclosed.
The project will be announced formally at a press conference at 11 a.m. Monday at Park City's City Hall.
The initial concept calls for 20 adult rides and 10 children's rides, all with western themes. Two of the adult rides would be a three-story western carousel and a roller coaster with cars shaped like buckboard wagons, both manufactured specifically for Wild West World.
The park also would include restaurants, a theater and daily longhorn cattle drives through a town square.
It would operate from May through mid-September.
The Etheredges, whose Prairie Rose music and dinner show is one of Kansas' fastest growing tourist attractions, say they have secured half the financing for the project. They plan to be the only shareholders. They already have spent $1.5 million on consulting fees, legal costs and plans.
They have asked Park City for tax abatements and infrastructure improvements. The City Council is scheduled to meet today to vote on a letter of intent outlining what it is willing to provide the development.
Prairie Rose, started in 1999 in Benton, drew more than 50,000 guests last year and had a gross revenue of $1.2 million. The Etheredges say they plan for Prairie Rose to continue its current format and to remain separate from Wild West World.
The theme park is the Etheredges' second attempt to expand their market from Prairie Rose. They planned a second operation in a Branson, Mo., theater last year but eventually decided they wouldn't be able to re-create the same experience. Soon after, they began focusing on a theme park in south-central Kansas.
They formed a corporation in early November called Wild West World Inc., secured Internet rights and started targeting communities, specifically Wichita, Bel Aire and Park City.
"Park City brought to the table some things that we felt very comfortable with in regards to their aggressiveness towards economic development and towards their commitment of being the entertainment capital of Kansas," Etheredge said.
Park City Mayor Emil Bergquist said his town is delighted to be the future home for Wild West World.
"The traffic that we enjoy from the Coliseum will be amplified by this," Bergquist said. "The quality of entertainment will give us a positive profile."
Planning the park
The Etheredges have put together a development team to help them plan the park financially and structurally.
Economic Consulting Services from Newport Beach, Calif., led by Don Stewart, is offering advice on the park's financial feasibility.
Stewart's client list includes Disney World in Florida, Six Flags parks in Texas and New Jersey, Hershey Chocolate World in Hershey, Pa., Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., and Worlds of Fun in Kansas City.
Stewart came to Wichita earlier this year to look over potential sites and to analyze what size park the area could sustain.
He determined that a park in the Wichita market could draw about 288,000 visitors in its first year.
Based on those tourism numbers, he decided a park in the Wichita area would need to be at least 23.17 acres and require more than 1,100 parking spaces.
"One of the realities of these parks is that if you size them to the market, they do fine," Stewart said. "The size of the park being relative to the size of the market is really the trick."
Stewart said he was impressed with the location's accessibility, visibility and existing utilities.
Etheredge has also hired architect Bruce Robinson of Cincinnati, who has worked on a number of theme park projects.
Robinson said his goal in designing the park was to create a captivating, Wild West experience for the visitor.
"We're really creating live theater," he said. "You're going to feel like you're really there."
One of the features in Robinson's mock-up is a three-and-a-half- story waving cowboy sign along I-135.
"I'd like it to be seen from Salina, if possible," Etheredge said.
In addition to the roller coaster and tall carousel, the park could have stagecoach rides, whitewater canoes, a passenger train similar to the one on the Kansas State Fairgrounds and pony rides.
An Old West town square, similar in design to Old Cowtown Museum's main street, would house two restaurants, several souvenir shops and a number of craftsmen shops. One of the restaurants would feature Prairie Rose's barbecue menu.
Plans call for Texas longhorn cattle to be herded through the center of the town square twice daily.
In addition, a 300- to 500-seat venue tentatively called The Johnny Western Concert Hall would be built for musical entertainment. Johnny Western is a longtime local radio personality and singer-songwriter.
A frontage area will remain between the park and the interstate. Etheredge said he hopes that area will be developed by other businesses, such as hotels and restaurants.
Amusement in the news
The Etheredges' plan is the third amusement park in the news in Wichita recently. Richard, Ron and Marty Cornejo announced plans to add eight to 10 rides this spring at All Star Sports at 1010 N. Webb Road. The plan is to slowly develop the site into an amusement park over several years.
And Thursday, Stanley and Margaret Nelson, who had owned Joyland for nearly 30 years until 2003, bought the park out of foreclosure and hope to sell it.
Both are considerably smaller than the Etheredges' project.
Thomas Etheredge emphasized that Wild West World's intent is not to drive existing and proposed attractions from the region, but to work with them to strengthen the overall tourism climate in south-central Kansas.
"We think this is an opportunity for all the great attractions in Wichita and the region to come together, and together foster a whole new day, a whole new environment for bringing tourism to Kansas like it's never been done before."
Contributing: Dan Voorhis of The Eagle
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| That seems like a pretty cool idea. I don't think this has been posted on this site yet. http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/10450695.htm |
12-22-2004, 12:47 PM
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