(Picture credit Matt Johnson)
OMAHA — Elected officials and business leaders converged Thursday afternoon on the site of the world’s first Mattel Wonder Indoor Water Park in Bellevue, getting a first look at interior renderings of the facility as well as a tour inside the park, which is still under construction.
The roughly 100,000-square-foot facility sits at the crossroads of Highways 75 and 34 and will anchor the future Bellevue Bay Entertainment District, which will encompass about 35 acres of commercial space surrounding the park.
“It represents the kind of destination we have been working to create for Bellevue,” said Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike. “A place that attracts families, brings visitors into the community, supports new businesses, and gives people more reasons to stay, spend time and money, and come back.”
Several elected officials were present, including members of the Bellevue City Council, Sarpy County Commissioner Angi Burmeister, Ralston Mayor Donald Groesser, and state Sen. Victor Rountree, whose district includes part of Bellevue.
“I’m excited about the water park because it will afford a lot of us to have ‘staycations,’” Rountree told The Plains Sentinel. “We’ll have great economic development, and I think it’s only fitting with Bellevue being Nebraska’s oldest city and first city, that we have something that’s monumental like this that will represent, will draw, it will produce, and make us trendsetters for the rest of Nebraska.”
Congressman Mike Flood related the new park to two “Nirvana” experiences for a young family from Norfolk, namely Peony Park in Omaha and Adventureland in Ankeny, Iowa. Flood said that he hopes the park will become a similar draw for families in the future.
“There’s a ranch family in Valentine that’s going to make this their annual family vacation,” Flood said. “Those parents are going to get their kids to behave year-round, because they’re going to threaten them that they don’t get to come to the Wonder Water Park unless they behave.”
The indoor park will have a retractable roof and will be open year-round, a feature Flood said would be of particular interest to families during winter months, including those stationed at Offutt Air Force Base.
“To all the airmen that serve at Offutt, think about what they’re going to experience with their children in a place where their spouse said, ‘We’re not gonna do anything in the winter. It’s too dang cold up here.’ Now they’ve got this.”
Rendered interior images of the park, revealed during the event, showed attractions built around Mattel brands, including a Barbie activity pool and FlowRider surf simulator and a Hot Wheels “Challenge Accepted” multi-slide tower. Other features included a Fisher-Price water-play structure and a lazy river themed around Mattel Games, including UNO and Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots.
The project has been in development since 2023, with plans to open in late 2027.
— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.