KRMG In Depth: Update on American Heartland Theme Park and Resort planned for Vinita area

At last week’s city council meeting, Vinita Mayor Josh Lee told councilors he’d invited representatives of Mansion Entertainment Group to come give an update on progress building a massive theme park, hotel, resort, and camping complex.

“They flew people in from all over the country,” he said, going “above and beyond.”

[Hear the KRMG In Depth Report on the American Heartland Theme Park and Resort HERE]

Among those who attended that meeting last week were Mansion’s Senior Executive Vice President Kristy Adams, Executive Producer of Project Development Steve Hedrick, and President/Chief Operating Officer Larry Wilhite.

Hedrick explained that some delays to the 3 Ponies RV Park, the first phase of development, were due to redesigns he directed the team to make when it was discovered some of the land was on a FEMA flood plain.

“That’s my fault, I’m sorry,” he told the councilors. But it made more sense to redesign and build on a smaller piece of land, maintaining the same number of RV spaces and cabins, than to wait for the company and FEMA to come to an agreement.

It will also make some land available for possible future expansion.

And on that topic, he noted that Mansion had decided to make the hotel larger, which also required some additional design work.

“We had originally planned a 300-room hotel, and then lo and behold - we found some efficiencies there, and now we’re going with a 400-room hotel,” Hedrick said.

And while the overall price of the project has risen to an estimate $2.5 billion - up about a half a billion dollars - Adams told the council the company has not backed off on its plans to open the park in a couple of years.

“We always said we were going to open in 2026,” she said. “Probably latter (sic) in 2026, but yeah, we haven’t announced any delays, we haven’t announced a new time yet. So, fingers crossed, with the team we have together, we can still accomplish that.”