Company purchases land for Coyote Falls

Tuesday, 15 November 2005

By TOM JACKSON
tomjackson@sanduskyregister.com

PERKINS TWP. - A Nebraska company planning to build Erie County's fourth indoor waterpark has completed buying the land that will serve as the site, a local real estate official said Monday.

Dial Family Resorts has completed purchasing about 48 acres of land along U.S. 250, said Ed Hoty, owner of Edmond Hoty Real Estate. The land was purchased from Larry Holkenborg, 6703 Milan Road.

Terms of the purchase weren't disclosed and officials at the Erie County Auditor's Office said the transaction hasn't been filed yet.

The new waterpark, which will be located north of Kalahari Waterpark and Resort but south of Great Wolf Lodge and Castaway Bay, should spur development of a relatively undeveloped stretch of U.S. 250, Hoty said.

The project remains on schedule, with construction scheduled to begin in spring 2006, with a planned opening of the waterpark set for 2008, said Pat Ricketts, assistant to the president of Dial Family Resorts, part of Dial Companies Inc. in Omaha, Neb.

Plans for the $84 million Coyote Falls Lodge call for a 347-room resort with a 65,000-square-foot indoor waterpark. It's expected Coyote Falls will employ between 250 and 275 people.

Coyote Falls will have a 400,000-square-foot building. Construction will take place on 30 acres, leaving room for expansion on the remaining land, Ricketts said.

Great Wolf Lodge began Erie County's move into the indoor waterpark business when it opened in 2001. Castaway Bay opened in November 2004 and was followed by Kalahari, which opened in May.

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