Hey, local taxpayers are already on the hook for a $38 million log flume ride, let’s not add a $100 million indoor water park to their backs.
A Wisconsin’s company’s announcement that it is scouting out the Charlotte area for a site for a new water park has all the hallmarks of a state and/or local tax incentive fishing operation. Great Wolf Resorts says it “intends” to build a park that will “create” 400 jobs and be the only attraction of its kind in the region.
Now what would you pay?
Ft. Mill (South Carolina) and Concord (North Carolina) are two preliminary sites the company has scouted out. And construction on the hotel resort could begin later this year.
But wait there’s more.
Great Wolf’s Grapevine, Tex. project received local subsidies for the $100 million project it started last year. This outpost, smack up against Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport, was recently completed. In April 2005 Great Wolf announced the company’s interest in the region by saying “locating there is still preliminary.” In 2007 the spin for Charlotte is, “We just don’t have an actual site we can announce yet.” Big surprise.
Act now, offer ends soon.
