{"id":2490885,"date":"2026-07-06T21:51:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T21:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2490885"},"modified":"2026-07-06T21:51:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T21:51:51","slug":"when-hunt-family-backed-theme-park-aims-to-open-in-olathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/when-hunt-family-backed-theme-park-aims-to-open-in-olathe\/","title":{"rendered":"When Hunt family-backed theme park aims to open in Olathe"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Loretto Properties plans to develop 50 acres of land on the southwest corner of West 119th Street and Renner Boulevard in Olathe.<\/p>\n

Renderings by Slaggie Architects<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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After an 18-month pause<\/a> on starting construction because of issues with the land\u2019s sale, Olathe\u2019s multimillion-dollar, ultra accessible theme park<\/a> has a new construction timeline, with parts of the project aiming to open as early as January, and the full entertainment district planning to be operational around summer 2028.<\/p>\n

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Lamar Hunt Jr\u2019s company, Loretto Properties, and VanTrust Real Estate celebrated the $320 million entertainment district\u2019s groundbreaking in February, kicking off construction for what will eventually become a theme park, a hockey arena, and a six-story hotel on the southwest corner of West 119th Street and Renner Boulevard.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re shooting for 24 months to be up and running because we want it out of the ground,\u201d said James Arkell, the chief operating officer of Loretto Companies and Hunt Jr.\u2019s son-in-law.<\/p>\n

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The theme park, Michael\u2019s World, is in honor of Hunt Jr.\u2019s grandson and Arkell\u2019s son, Michael, who has a rare medical condition that requires him to be in a wheelchair. Loretto Properties wanted to design a place where families with children who have disabilities could be together without limitation \u2014 similarly to Morgan\u2019s Wonderland in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

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A rendering of one of the rides that will be featured at the new ultra accessible theme park, named Michael\u2019s Wonder World, in Olathe Zamperla<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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\u201cWe want it open, and we want people to start really having a good time and coming out and seeing all the really cool pieces that are coming to this that are going to make it so unique and special for the community and the surrounding area,\u201d Arkell said.<\/p>\n

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Site development plans show where Halo Ridge will be constructed in Olathe. The development will bring an accessible amusement park, sports arena and hotel to the city\u2019s Gateway District. City of Olathe<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Construction timeline<\/h2>\n

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The Olathe City Council approved the project last January, and developers initially planned for construction to begin last summer, but a titling issue with the property stopped the land\u2019s sale and hindered the construction start date until it was resolved.<\/p>\n

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The development will be supported by about $104 million in incentives<\/a>, including a sales tax revenue (STAR) bond district to support the development of entertainment and tourism attractions. Tax collection won\u2019t start until the developments are in place and generating revenue.<\/p>\n

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With the titling issues sorted, Arkell said the developers will start with building out roads, sewers and utility lines, and clear the 50-acre property over the next eight to 10 months in order to make way for building construction.<\/p>\n

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Once the supporting infrastructure is in place, it will be about 12 to 18 months of \u201cvertical construction,\u201d or developing the amenities, the theme park and the arena that will eventually make up the entertainment district.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019ll see quite a bit of work happening here in the next month that\u2019ll make it start to take shape and really look like a project coming off the ground,\u201d Arkell said.<\/p>\n

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A rendering of The Sibling Space, an area that allows families to rest during medical visits at the accompanying Halo Care Collective, the medical clinic apart of a $104M entertainment district in Olathe. Dimmensional Innovations<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Medical clinic opening in January<\/h2>\n

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While the entertainment district is under construction, the project\u2019s accompanying medical clinic, dubbed the Halo Care Collective, is expected to open in January in an existing building across the street from the future theme park.<\/p>\n

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The Halo Care Collective is moving faster than the theme park in part because the building already exists.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019ve delivered us the building in just phenomenal shape\u2026 it looks brand new,\u201d he said. \u201cIt makes it easier to get that going faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

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From physical and occupational therapies to helping families gain access to healthy food and financial planning, the clinic will host 18 medical care providers and roughly 60 community organizations to help families in one place rather than making them travel around the metro for different services.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEveryone\u2019s really kind of gathered in a way that I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve ever done before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Taylor O\u2019Connor<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n

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Taylor is The Star\u2019s Johnson County watchdog reporter. Before coming to Kansas City, she reported on north Santa Barbara County, California, covering local governments, school districts and issues ranging from the housing crisis to water conservation. She grew up in Minneapolis and graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Loretto Properties plans to develop 50 acres of land on the southwest corner of West 119th Street and Renner Boulevard in Olathe. Renderings by Slaggie Architects After an 18-month pause on starting construction because of issues with the land\u2019s sale, Olathe\u2019s multimillion-dollar, ultra accessible theme park has a new construction timeline, with parts of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2490886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2490885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/When-Hunt-family-backed-theme-park-aims-to-open-in-Olathe.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2490885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2490887,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490885\/revisions\/2490887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2490886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2490885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2490885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2490885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}