OKALOOSA ISLAND — Work is progressing on Wild Willy’s Adventure Zone and the Gulf Coast Marine Life Center, two new projects being built on a portion of the old Island Golf Center property on U.S. Highway 98.
Kono Concepts, the firm developing Wild Willy’s, expects to have the new amusement park open by the start of the summer tourist season.
“We are making great progress and still anticipate to be open in May,” Blake Rogers, director of business development, said in an email to the Daily News. “We are eager to get the season underway soon and follow through with our promise to provide quality family fun.”
Wild Willy’s is located on a 2.8-acre lot within the 35-acre county-owned park that sits between Santa Rosa Sound and U.S. Highway 98. The Gulf Coast Marine Life Center, a fish hatchery and educational facility backed by Destin-based nonprofit AquaGreen, will be built on 4.5 acres.
Okaloosa County has leased the property to AquaGreen and Dominion Capital to generate revenue that will be used to maintain the park, which has been left primarily natural.
At Wild Willy’s, crews are preparing to start construction on a 3,980-square-foot restaurant and a yogurt kiosk.
“We anticipate going vertical within the next couple weeks,” Rogers said.
The new amenities —which include a ropes course, laser maze and shooting gallery, a fossil mining area, dinosaur park and a bungee trampoline — will be built around a mini golf course already in place at the site.
“Our themed miniature golf will be one-of-a-kind,” Rogers added. “At just about every turn there will be sensors activating special effects making our courses interactive unlike any other.”
The company plans to hire 50 workers initially, he said.
“There will be announcements posted in local media and we hope to work with local schools on a work study program for exemplary students,” Rogers said. “We truly want Wild Willy’s to create memorable experiences for all patrons who visit the park.”
Construction on the Gulf Coast Marine Life Center could begin in the next two to three months. Preliminary site work began last week.
“We’re bringing in loads of sand and we’re also going to start on the retention ponds,” said Pat Barcus, director of business and development for AquaGreen.
The sand is needed to build up the lot because the facility will be elevated to the same level of the Emerald Coast Convention Center, he added.
The first phase of the center will be a 16,000-square-foot building to house hatching equipment for up to four species of fish at a time. The first phase has been funded through private donations and a Deepwater Horizon BP grant and should be completed by December 2013, Barcus said.
“Our university partnerships are expanding,” Barcus said. “We’re bringing on the University of Maryland for blue crab research, Texas A&M for shrimp and sea urchins, and LSU for pompano and coastal grasses.”
Aquaculture experts from the University of Miami, University of New Hampshire and the University of North Carolina Wilmington will be involved in research on red snapper, grouper, flounder, cobia, oysters and scallops.
The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the Florida Sea Grant Extension Agents also will have access to the center to support educational and outreach programs.
“This facility is all about education and research,” Barcus said. Work is progressing on Wild Willy’s Adventure Zone and the Gulf Coast Marine Life Center, two new projects being built on a portion of the old Island Golf Center property on U.S. Highway 98.
Kono Concepts, the firm developing Wild Willy’s, expects to have the new amusement park open by the start of the summer tourist season.
“We are making great progress and still anticipate to be open in May,” Blake Rogers, director of business development, said in an email to the Daily News. “We are eager to get the season underway soon and follow through with our promise to provide quality family fun.”
Wild Willy’s is located on a 2.8-acre lot within the 35-acre county-owned park that sits between Santa Rosa Sound and U.S. Highway 98. The Gulf Coast Marine Life Center, a fish hatchery and educational facility backed by Destin-based nonprofit AquaGreen, will be built on 4.5 acres.
Okaloosa County has leased the property to AquaGreen and Dominion Capital to generate revenue that will be used to maintain the park, which has been left primarily natural.
At Wild Willy’s, crews are preparing to start construction on a 3,980-square-foot restaurant and a yogurt kiosk.
“We anticipate going vertical within the next couple weeks,” Rogers said.
The new amenities —which include a ropes course, laser maze and shooting gallery, a fossil mining area, dinosaur park and a bungee trampoline — will be built around a mini golf course already in place at the site.
“Our themed miniature golf will be one-of-a-kind,” Rogers added. “At just about every turn there will be sensors activating special effects making our courses interactive unlike any other.”
The company plans to hire 50 workers initially, he said.
“There will be announcements posted in local media and we hope to work with local schools on a work study program for exemplary students,” Rogers said. “We truly want Wild Willy’s to create memorable experiences for all patrons who visit the park.”
Construction on the Gulf Coast Marine Life Center could begin in the next two to three months. Preliminary site work began last week.
“We’re bringing in loads of sand and we’re also going to start on the retention ponds,” said Pat Barcus, director of business and development for AquaGreen.
The sand is needed to build up the lot because the facility will be elevated to the same level of the Emerald Coast Convention Center, he added.
The first phase of the center will be a 16,000-square-foot building to house hatching equipment for up to four species of fish at a time. The first phase has been funded through private donations and a Deepwater Horizon BP grant and should be completed by December 2013, Barcus said.
“Our university partnerships are expanding,” Barcus said. “We’re bringing on the University of Maryland for blue crab research, Texas A&M for shrimp and sea urchins, and LSU for pompano and coastal grasses.”
Aquaculture experts from the University of Miami, University of New Hampshire and the University of North Carolina Wilmington will be involved in research on red snapper, grouper, flounder, cobia, oysters and scallops.
The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the Florida Sea Grant Extension Agents also will have access to the center to support educational and outreach programs.
“This facility is all about education and research,” Barcus said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Kari Barlow at 850-315-4438 orkbarlow@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KariBnwfdn.