Water Slides On The Way Back To Manteca
MANTECA (CBS13) - Great Wolf Lodge is breaking ground this week near Highway 120 and the city expects it to attract more than a million tourists from across California.
"I heard about it today," said Roshan Patel, who live in Manteca. "I was shocked!"
But word of new water slides slipping into Manteca is a welcome surprise for locals. Especially those who remember the slides from the good old days.
"But now they're all gone!" Said Jeff Smith, who lives in Manteca.
But thanks to Great Wolf Lodge, they're on the way back.
"This lot that we just sold to Great Wolf Lodge is about 30 acres and they're hoping to start construction next week," said Tim Ogden, Manteca City Manager.
The new lodge will be the company's 19th location in the U.S. Plans include 500 guest rooms, a multi-level ropes course, and a live-action adventure game. But the highlight for many in Manteca is the indoor water park, stretching across 95,000 square feet with tube slides, raft rides and splash areas for all ages.
"I have 4 grandkids so I have to go," Smith said.
But the water park is only one part of what the city is calling it's "Family Entertainment Zone" between Milo Candini Drive and Mckinley Avenue. To the east is the popular Big League Dreams that's booked out nearly two years in advance. The attraction features scaled-down replicas of famous ballparks. To the west, the city has plans for a new interchange and access to Bart extension trains.
"It'll help considerably because the traffic right now on [Highway] 120 is horrible," Smith said. "It would just be worse if they didn't do something about it."
And just north of the lodge site is even more unused land, available for the city to keep the entertainment zone expanding.
"They're going to spend their money here and leave their money here and benefit our community so it's a win, win for all of us," Ogden said.
"The good thing about it is we'll have lots of jobs available," Patel said.
The city expects the lodge to bring about 500 jobs to the area. But locals like Smith say they've seen these plans fall through in the past.
"It took Manteca a long time to make a decision on this," he told CBS13. "Everybody was saying yes, no, yes, no."
Ogden says this time, the plans have a solid foundation.
"The big difference this time around with Great Wolf Lodge is that they now own the property," Ogden said. "And they're ready to move dirt."
And even though the lodge won't open until 2020, the city already has other companies trying to get into in the new zone.
"We'll be busy for the next couple years, keeping this going," Ogden said.
Once the Lodge opens in 2020, the city says we'll likely see more retail stores and restaurants pop up along this corridor. A groundbreaking ceremony is planned for sometime in September.
