The American Heartland Theme Park and Resort

[shavethewhales]

Over a month later, and still no action or firm statements from Mansion Group. https://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news...ita-theme-park

Basically, from the whispers here and there, it sounds like their whole plan is completely on fire now and they are struggling to figure out a real path forward. Some of it needs to wait on getting funding for the off-site utilities from the state. That was always a foreseeable delay, just like the floodplain issues. I imagine Mansion Group is very humbled now. Sounds like they still want to move forward, but they are slowly coming to the realization that this will be a 5 year minimum process, not a 2 year one like they originally thought.

I imagine the RV project COULD kick back off this year and be completed relatively fast, but since the success of that project hinges on there eventually getting the rest of the project developed, it would make more sense to wait until next year when they know they are able to move forward with the theme park. It would suck to get the RV park built only for the theme park to stay in limbo or get canceled.

[bombermwc]

So as we all thought, pie in the sky BS was just that.....

[Jake]

lol

[Pete]

^

Sorry, I deleted that 'apology' because I thought it was new, but it was from May 31st.

The Oklahoma had a story on it today and then I realized it's all very old news.

[PhiAlpha]

It would be very stereotypical "Oklahoma" of this whole thing if after all the song and dance, all we end up with is a trailer park LOL

[FighttheGoodFight]

I don't think anyone thought this would be more than an RV park from the start.

[shavethewhales]

Various news outlets have been running stories on this lately, giving "updates" that point out that there isn't much to update. The most interesting one I've seen is from Tulsa World:

The RV/cabins area adjustments, he said, “gives us some extra time to work with FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and get that flood plain resurveyed, et cetera, and get it in front of the government. That could actually be an expansion area,” he told the Vinita City Council.

However, the plastic fences currently near the planned RV/cabins area have signs that read “Do not disturb. Protected waters of the United States per the US Army Corps of Engineers. Tulsa Regulatory Office.”

Brannen Parrish, spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in the Tulsa region, which includes Vinita, said the Corps did not require signs, fencing or any other barriers at the site.

“The owner/developer of the property wanted to ensure the stream areas went undisturbed, as many different contractors were expected to be on site during the construction process,” he said in an email.

“The Corps issued a ‘No Permit Required’ letter based on the information provided by the applicant that the streams would be left undisturbed,” Parrish’s email said.

So that's really odd to hear that the property is not actually in a COE flood plain... There may still be some stormwater issues to address, but that makes a lot of the signage and fencing around the site very extraneous. That combined with the whole marketing around "dirt being moved" back early this year makes me wonder if the whole thing was just for show. Why is every part of this project so weird?

[bombermwc]

Because it's just a scam to try to get people to give them money for something that's never going to happen. If it did happen, it would be like The Producers. Sad for anyone that falls for this and funds it.

[shavethewhales]

The latest:
https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/wha...musement-park/

No changes. Crossland and FORREC liens still in effect for nearly $6 million. Not answering their phones, and no updates to social media since late July. Someone in one of the FB groups that I follow around Vinita sent an email and got a response stating that there is no timeline for the RV park anymore.

I wouldn't say the whole thing is outright dead yet, but the buzzards are circling. Next year they will have another shot at state funding for some of the utilities. That may be what they are waiting for. If nothing has been approved by next summer I think we can officially call it dead.

I imagine they want to see if they can get SOMETHING built before starting on the RV park. At this point it wouldn't make sense to move forward with the RV park because nothing else that they have proposed seems likely to get approval/funding. They need to drastically scale back their plans, but with $6 million already in the hole that isn't going to be easy. Who would even work for them as designers with so many outstanding bills?

[Jake]

Again credit to the Chickasaws for OKANA actually existing.

[Pete]

Again credit to the Chickasaws for OKANA actually existing.

Haha... No kidding.

Anyone can throw together some renderings and attract a lot of attention to themselves, but actually building something of quality at scale is rare and usually takes decades of perseverance and hard work.