Indiana’s Newest Indoor Water Park to Open in Shipshewana
Push for Younger Market at Midwest’s Largest Flea Market
Called an ‘Indiana Milestone’
Release: September 25, 2007
Contact: Shawn Bowman, (219) 531-2500
Shipshewana, IN – The newest indoor water park resort in Indiana will have its grand opening in a town of 550 people that is host to the largest auction and flea market in the Midwest on Friday, Oct. 5 at 10 a.m.
The opening of Splash Universe Water Park Resort that includes a 154 room full-service hotel and restaurants will be a milestone in Indiana history as it reaches out to a new market of younger families in a town that swells to 40,000 people every Tuesday and Wednesday for the flea market, mainly of older adults, mostly from Chicago and even Canada. The hotel opened July 9th.
The $25 million investment stands next to the new Shipshewana Town Center. This convention and “expo” center also houses the Hostetler’s Hudson Auto Museum, built in a unique public/private partnership involving the hotel complex with an innovative bond enhancement fee to help pay for the $10 million convention center and museum to spur tourism. The museum holds the world’s largest collection of antique Hudson automobiles and one-of-a-kind cars donated by chicken watering inventor Eldon Hostetler, with over 60 patents.
A highlight is the “Doc Hudson Hornet” car built for actor Paul Newman whose voice is in the automated 2006 blockbuster film, “Cars.” The handmade fiberglass car is on loan from the Porsche “Champion+Gunnar” racing team which boasts the 81-year old actor as the oldest member. This complex is also part of the “triple grand opening” early next month.
The combined 24-acre project takes aim at a new market to introduce younger families to Shipshewana, while giving older adults another reason to stay in this town that has an estimated 1 million visitors a year, especially grandmothers who now have another “destination” for their spouses with the car museum and grandkids with the water park resort.
This resort will not only offer the first indoor water park built in Northeast Indiana and only the second open in the state, said Dean Morgan, project coordinator for Shipshewana and general manager of the Shipshewana Town Center and Hostetler’s Hudson Auto Museum. But Splash Universe will also offer fun and entertainment to younger families within a two-hour drive, including Chicago and Indianapolis as well as Northwest Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.
The theme of the water park will mirror the farming traditions that surround this historic town named after Indian chief Shipshewana, and home to the nation’s third largest Amish community. It will feature seven water slides, an adventure area with a 500-gallon tipping bucket, a lazy river and more for youngsters, ages 2 to 12.
This is the first indoor water park resort built in Indiana by Focus Hospitality Services, LLC, the parent of Splash Universe Water Park Resorts based in Valparaiso, IN.
Earlier this year, the first in the series of upwards of 10 year-round water park resorts planned by Focus opened in Dundee, MI. For details about the opening from 10 to noon, call Shawn Bowman, Vice President, Marketing, at (219) 531-2500.
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