Days could be numbered for Midwesterners to get a taste of the tropics year-round at the KeyLime Cove Indoor Waterpark Resort in Gurnee.
Great Wolf Lodge, which operates indoor water park complexes in Wisconsin Dells and more than a dozen other markets, plans to buy the 414-room KeyLime Cove resort, redevelop and expand it, and reopen it around spring 2018 with a more rustic "North Woods" theme, Gurnee officials say in interviews and at a public meeting.
A Great Wolf executive at a Monday public meeting now viewable on YouTube, confirmed to Gurnee officials that his company would spend at least $65 million on the project, including expanding the water park, now about 65,000 square feet, by at least 20,000 square feet.
"We see a lot of opportunity in the Chicago market," Bryson Heezen, Great Wolf development director, said at the hearing. "This is where the $65 million investment is going to be spent — it's going to be creating this tradition that brings families back to Gurnee every year or multiple times a year."
The water park is key, but Heezen also highlighted planned amenities such as more food and beverage options, minibowling, and rope climbing up to three stories high. He also spoke of kid-friendly guest rooms and lobby entertainment.
David Ziegler, Gurnee's community development director, said Friday that the deal is expected to close by this spring, with KeyLime Cove operations, including the hotel, to be closed during the renovations. Construction is expected to take about a year, and the property is expected to reopen by spring 2018, Ziegler said.
The village of Gurnee said in a Monday news release that outdoor water park amenities also would be added.
"The village of Gurnee is excited to welcome Great Wolf Lodge into our community," Mayor Kristina Kovarik said in the release.
Kovarik said at the public hearing that KeyLime Cove, which opened in 2008, "has been underperforming."
KeyLime Cove declined to comment.
byerak@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @beckyyerak
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