The American Heartland Theme Park and Resort

[Urbanized]

I met some folks verifiably connected to both the political field and the tourism industry in northeast Oklahoma, folks who also do much business with the Osage AND with the Cherokee. They told me they also know the developers involved in this project and that they are as real as real gets. Take that for what it’s worth.

[UrbanistPoke]

I met some folks verifiably connected to both the political field and the tourism industry in northeast Oklahoma, folks who also do much business with the Osage AND with the Cherokee. They told me they also know the developers involved in this project and that they are as real as real gets. Take that for what it’s worth.

I've heard the same along with rides being worked on already which is why they feel like the 2026 date is realistic to accomplish. I wouldn't be surprised if they are looking at the Disney tax district model as well and is my guess to why we haven't seen much discussion about TIF, etc. Frankly, that's where the conservative vibes could help them get legislation through too. I had heard there was something possibly going to be thrown into the special session but ultimately it was too fast and didn't want to pollute it with the fact the session was about veto override. That's likely the point of bring Cathy onboard as a consultant to deal with how that would all work and they've been working with the Vinita state rep who was at the announcement. My guess is there will be legislation introduced next regular session.

So let's say a very modest estimate of 2 million visitors and they spend $50 average for entry pass and food/drink each - mostly likely the spend amount per person would be way higher than that, like probably $100/person or more - but that is $100,000,000 in sales and say they can set up a district that recovers nearly all city, county, state sales taxes with maybe a bit carved out to go back to the school district or city. So let's say 7% tax rate (with 0.50% to 1.0% carved out) goes back to American Heartland in the taxing district that is $7,000,000 a year in sales taxes alone. That's $175,000,000 over 25 years. Also, if the taxing district is set up where they don't have to pay any property taxes - you can easily see where this could all start adding up pretty quickly to allow them to leverage that to subsidize a big portion of the park and future developments. Add in them being able to recoup sales tax on the hotel/resort, RV camp ground, etc. etc. and all of that adds up really quick. Not hard to see how they can see $500 million or so in 'savings' in sales taxes alone over 25 years. If a special taxing district is set up then they can bond it just like a city government could, obviously with a dude and other family members combined wealth of $1 billion + I bet they'll get some banks interested in that pretty quickly.