When Rodney Steven II opens his new indoor water park in Goddard this spring, he aims to make more than just a splash.

The Genesis Health Clubs owner has worked to create a one-of-a-kind theme park within his almost 100-acre Genesis Sports Complex at 19800 W. Kellogg.

“It seems like water parks are always themed the same,” Steven said. “I just want it to be unique.”

The new Blast Off Bay is a play off of several things. That includes all the aviation and space names for buildings in the Goddard school district and Wichita’s status as the Air Capital of the World. The science fiction theme even borrows a bit from Hutchinson’s Cosmosphere.

“This is something different,” Steven said.

Goddard Mayor Hunter Larkin said the theme makes sense.

“Goddard has a lot of space themes,” he said. “This is going to be really big.”

The space theme will extend to furniture, with children getting to land on the moon or sit on planets such as Saturn.

Instead of the typical bucket that fills with water to dump on swimmers below, Blast Off Bay has a rocket that takes off to make the water pour out.

Instead of a typical wooden gazebo that might be found in other parks, kids can play in a geodome.

Birthday parties will be held in a larger dome.

“Kids will have a blast,” Steven said.

There are attractions that adults can enjoy along with the children, such as a hot tub and swim-up bar. The bar is in an area where there’s also a surfing machine.

“It’s going to be the biggest attraction in the park,” Steven said.

He said the swim-up bar is strategically placed in front of the surfing machine so you can sit and “watch your friend wipe out.”

Steven said it’s possible to stay in the middle of the surf area and keep afloat. If you wipe out, he said the water brings you back to the surface.

The closest equivalent to the park is Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, Steven said, but he said there’s not another surf machine for several hundred miles.

Steven hasn’t set prices for the park yet.

Blast Off Bay’s slides are all on site and are being assembled.

The park’s pumps all have had to be specially made, Steven said.

He said he’s “really hoping for a May opening.”

“I’m slower than I should have been.”

The pandemic has caused delays.

“We’re catching up right now,” Steven said.

He said another delay has been creating a new concept from scratch.

“It’s taking a lot more creativity for sure.”

‘GETTING VERY CLOSE’

The new water park is hardly all that Steven is working on at the Goddard complex.

He said he hopes to open the new 133-room Goddard Hampton Inn at the same time as the park.

Though Steven said he’s still waiting on materials for the hotel, he said, “We are getting very close.”

His new Genesis Health Club that’s opening in the same building as the water park likely will open even earlier.

Steven said the new club will have some enhanced features, such as a large turf area.

“Functional training is so big these days,” he said.

There will be a large amount of free weights as well.

“Everybody is squatting these days,” Steven said. “Everybody is dead lifting. Everybody is lunging these days. . . . It’s an amazing transformation we’re seeing.”

The club likely will open in early April.

There also will be a licensed preschool at the complex.

“We’re pushing hard right now on everything,” Steven said.

That also includes an 82,000-square-foot natatorium, which will open around the same time as the water park.

There will be a 10-lane pool and a 4-lane warm-up pool along with 600 spectator seats. The idea is for the natatorium to be able to host large state and regional competitions.

Steven also recently broke ground on a sports bar at the property.

There’s no name yet, but the bar will have dining in the front area and then open in the back onto a sand sports complex.

“There’s literally not a sport you can’t play in the sand,” Steven said.

There will be yard sports such as bocce ball and cornhole, too. Steven expects the bar to be ready by late this year.

He’s also at work adding five new softball fields to go with the five baseball fields that are already operational.

“We’re booked out two years in advance on the baseball,” Steven said.

He said the fields are part of one of the largest baseball complexes in a 10-state area and have full turf, meaning there won’t be wet fields to delay games.

Steven most likely will add three more fields, he said.

“The tourism we’re already doing in the baseball is absolutely crazy.”

He said tourism for Goddard and Wichita will only continue to grow with the complex.

“I think the tourism coming into Wichita for this water park is going to be . . . really big,” Steven said.

“I feel like the hotel is going to be super busy, and we’re going to need to build a second hotel.”

Steven said he expects the water park to be a major attraction for winter vacations and even summer ones, too.

“We’d love to add on an outdoor water park one day,” he said. “This complex is going to keep going for a while.”

Larkin said “we’re getting in traffic that we have never seen before.”

He said that was the point of the state upping the sales tax and revenue bonds for the project from $30 million to $40 million last year.

“The whole purpose of STAR bonds is to create an attraction that will bring people from out of state and in the state,” Larkin said.

“It’s going to be the greatest asset that the city of Goddard has had in a long, long time.”