Developers recently broke ground in Wheeling, West Virginia on the 100-acre Wild Escape resort. According to the Centre Daily Times, the $200 million project, which is slated to include a full-scale theme park, indoor and outdoor water parks, and a large hotel, could open by next July. However, the newspaper points out, given the scale of the resort, the timetable appears to be woefully unrealistic. What the newspaper doesn't point out is that the developers have pitched similar plans in other parts of the country only to fold their tents and escape before the projects moved forward. A few years ago, they proposed to build Papa's Park, a major theme park in Iowa. When that deal collapsed, the developers unveiled grandiose plans for Port Nebraska, a resort near Omaha that included a Wild Escapes theme park and sounded a lot like the West Virginia project. Will roller coasters and water slides actually be coming to Wheeling? I don't know, but before the city starts trumpeting the new park, it may want to take a close look at the developers' escape clause.
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