Irvine’s water park Wild Rivers has uploaded a new flythrough video on its website that features notable aspects of the park. Conceptual Design and Planning Company in Costa Mesa created this innovative piece of content for Wild Rivers. This video shows the park’s most detailed features to date. It begins at the Wild Rivers entrance, proceeds into the so-called Lazy River area and then into the left side of that river, in the direction of the RainFortress structure. After giving an aerial view of that structure, the flythrough video shows the monolithic attraction that is the Family Raft Rides.
The 3D rendering media concept gives us the first idea about the updated look of the water park. Irvine inhabitants have been waiting for the aquatic area of interest to reopen for several years now. It has long been encountering reopening delays as well.
Last April, the Great Park Board of Directors received an appeal to choose another location for the real state project. In a recent meeting, the board stated that the transfer of this planned construction location faced an unexpected delay. At the same time, it told the Irvine City Council to approve a 20-acre area as the location for the water park.
The delay is attributable to the recent land lease where Wild Rivers and Irvine city got the site chosen for this real estate development. Four years ago, when the plan to bring it to the Orange County Great Park location materialized, Irvine leased Department of Navy land through a LIFOC (Lease in Furtherance of Conveyance).
The part of Navy land was originally supposed to be transferred to Irvine city by October 2019. Nevertheless, as per the Request for Board Action process, which the Navy feels could take at least 18 to 24 months, the LIFOC lease necessitated further studies before the transfer.
While it was supposed to do preparatory digging in April, Wild Rivers Chief Executive Officer Mike Riedel stated that it could not do so due to financial challenges. Wild Rivers preparatory digging happened in July 2021, after the acquisition of financing for the aquatic project worth $60 million. Riedel explained that it was a difficult situation to sell the related bonds for that funding. Explaining the situation with the word ‘rocky road’, Riedel stated that solidifying the funds was a step of great importance in the project.
