There’s a possibility that another firm and not Great Wolf Resorts will end up operating a 500-room resort hotel with an indoor water park and conference center in Manteca.

That’s because the new chief executive officer for Great Wolf — Ruben Rodriquez — who took over Sept. 22 — wants to look at a location in the Bay Area.  It’s called due diligence since the deal wasn’t started on his watch.

McWhinney Development, the investment/development firm that will actually come up with the $200 million plus and has five years plus into the project hammering out details isn’t taking any chances. They’ve been approached by other water park resorts over the past several years that would be more than happy to land in Manteca that is at the epicenter of the nation’s third largest 100-mile radius market with 17 million people.

And while the city has been assured by Great Wolf that Manteca is still in the running, the odds are McWhinney isn’t about to be aced out given the hand that they hold jointly with Manteca.

The behind-the-scenes maneuvering that started two weeks ago isn’t expected to stop the Manteca City Council  from certifying the environment impact report when they meet tonight at 7 o’clock  for the resort that is part of an overall 210.7-acre family entertainment zone envisioned for city-owned land by the wastewater treatment plant.

That’s because once it is approved, it is as good as money in the bank.

It gives Manteca an advantage with an EIR approved specific project for a 500-room hotel, 75,000-square-foot indoor water park, 15,000-square-foot outdoor water park, and 30,000-square-foot conference center.

Once the state-mandated EIR that took 18 months to complete is adopted, it means a resort project that size or smaller can proceed.

Given how contentious EIR battles are in the Bay Area it could take until the next decade for another investor to get a Great Wolf-style project going west of the Altamont Pass.

Then there are little details like finding 30 acres that won’t cost the gross national project of a Third World country and the rapid spread of prevailing local wage laws in Bay Area communities where City Councils are requiring businesses such as Great Wolf to pay anywhere from 50 to 80 percent above the state minimum wage by 2020.

In Garden Grove near Anaheim, Great Wolf and McWhinney were able to take advantage of a master EIR that has already been done allowing for more hotel rooms and added attractions such as water parks. That drastically reduced the EIR review process for the Garden Grove project.

 There’s no panic at City Hall.

That’s because the entire idea when more than $20 million was set aside in the city’s last ever redevelopment agency bond sale to encourage economic development in southwest Manteca around the wastewater treatment plant was to have land that was shovel ready for development.

The remaining RDA money under law can only be spent on those endeavors already identified which includes extending Daniels Street to McKinley Avenue, putting in sewer and water lines, storm drains extending Milo Canid Dive and funding community parks.

The original plan called for simply a water park. When word of that got out, a Sacramento area development made it clear he was willing to commit $8 million to bring one to Manteca given its location and take advantage of the storied drawing power of the former Manteca Waterslides with Bay Area and foreign tourists traveling to and from Yosemite National Park.

Manteca leaders were urged to take advantage of the city’s location and regional drawing power and the fact it is on the main route that countless Bay Area residents use to access Sierra and Yosemite National Park as well as being within a 60-minute drive of San Jose, San Francisco, and Sacramento.

uIt is what brought Bass Pro Shops first to Manteca before stores in Rocklin near Sacramento and in San Jose started moving forward.

uIt is what has made the Manteca sports complex the most successful in the Big League Dreams system going more than five years with tournaments booked every weekend even including over holidays.

uIt is what brought Pulte Homes to Manteca when they surveyed potential Bay Area buyers of what community they would consider relocating to live in a Del Webb neighborhood.

The new Great Wolf CEO — who is 52 years old — once lived in the Bay Area where he obtained an engineering degree from Cal Berkeley and a MBA from Stanford. He also has a degree from Princeton.

He joined Great Wolf after working for Carnival Cruise Lines and was previously employed at The Charles Schwab Corporation and eToys.

 As far as costs to date, the city isn’t out any money save for some redevelopment agency funds that had been earmarked previously for the studies and could only be spent in such a manner. McWhinney wrote a check for $200,000 and Manteca Development Group $100,000 to cover the city’s EIR costs. That is in addition to money that those two sources have also invested in their own studies and financial models.

The bottom line is Manteca in just a few months will have a shovel ready site for an indoor water park resort. And since Great Wolf has made no secrets about its desire to expand into Northern California, the firm’s competitors are well aware of what’s going on.

That means their competitors could soon be at Great Wolf’s door.

Things could get real interesting in the coming weeks.