Manteca’s next municipal building could go up on Daniels Street.
Municipal leaders are hammering out details on a Great Wolf Lodge proposal that would have the 20,000-square-foot conference center planned as part of an envisioned 500-room resort hotel and 75,000-quare-foot indoor water park that would be financed, owned and operated by the City of Manteca.
It would be part of a community facilities district the city would put in place to pay for onsite improvements the city would own such as the conference center. The CFD would be paid for from the city’s 25 percent share of a split with McWhinney Development for the sales and room tax revenue that Great Wolf would generate.
Unlike certificates of participation (COP) the city had toyed with using, if the CFD happens to get into trouble financially the ominous would be only on the property within the district. The COPs route had the potential of putting all of Manteca’s taxpayers on the hook should the ability to repay $32 million the city would borrow for their share of the project go south. McWhinney would put up over $200 million. In other words if a default occurs, lenders could only go after the city-owned conference center.
The $32 million is in addition to offsite infrastructure the city would cover as part of the overall family entertainment zone (FEZ) plan for things such as streets, main sewer and water lines and creating a manmade lake. The FEZ would include 33 acres or about 400,000 square feet of commercial, retail and dining space as well as 62 acres of indoor and outdoor entertainment uses. There would be a small outdoor amphitheatre, sports fields for multi-sport tournaments for city use during off periods, and two additional fields for the Big League Dreams sports complex that is city owned but managed by a private concern.
The needed infrastructure would be financed from a mixture of sources such as set aside redevelopment agency money and public facilities fees collected on new growth.
The city would retain ownership of the 30 acres where McWhinney wants to build and have Great Wolf Lodge manage the destination resort. The two parties are negotiating a 99-year lease. That means unless terms can be reached for a renewal of some sort in 99 years after the resort opens, the city could theoretically become the owner of the hotel and indoor waterpark.
At 20,000 square feet, the proposed conference center is 5,000 square feet larger than the one Great Wolf opened in Grand Mound in Washington State.
That complex consists of over 15,500 square feet of flexible meeting space that can be configured into 12 separate rooms. That allows the flexibility to accommodate events as small as 10 guests or ns large as 1,100 guests.
A 20,000-square-foot conference center would be the biggest public hall in Manteca.
The Modesto Centre Plaza includes a 16,000-square-foot flexible exhibit hall that may be a more appropriate comparison for the proposed Manteca facility. Manteca will likely have about that much space for actual rental use given they need to provide for restrooms, entrance and hallways, storage as well as a kitchen.
Modesto’s main hall can accommodate up to 2,500 for a concert with a stage, 1,800 in theatre-style setting, 740 in classroom-style setting, and 1,700 in a banquet setting. It can accommodate either 135 exhibit booths that are 8 by 10 feet or 100 booths that are 10 by 10 feet, Modesto Centre Plaza restricts kitchen use to non-profits only requiring all others to use the Double Tree Hotel for catering.
City Manager Karen McLaughlin said the conference center could be run by either the Manteca Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Manteca Chamber of Commerce or an outside management concern.
The project is expected to be before the Planning Commission by May and the City Council in June. Groundbreaking would then occur in July.
Great Wolf projects a $9.4 million annual payroll with 414 permanent jobs and 156 part-time jobs. They also expect 400,000 annual visitors.
