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Editor’s note: With permits for Wild Escape at The Highlands in Ohio County still pending, theme park President Steve Minard visited with editors and reporters at The Intelligencer on Thursday to discuss the project and his future plans.



WHEELING — When Steve Minard was a child, he would dance on the hearth at his grandparents’ house to make people laugh.

Decades later, at the age of 39, Minard plans to continue doing just that — this time with a theme park named Wild Escape.

He said 12 of the planned park’s rides, which are part of a “$30 million ride package,” already have been constructed. Five of the 12 are roller coasters. All are in storage, he said, waiting for their final destination — The Highlands in Ohio County.

But until the county can receive permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct earth work on the designated site, the rides will remain in storage. But Minard isn’t sweating it — he said he knows the process of getting such a park going can be a long one.

For example, in Omaha, Neb., he has been waiting for nearly four years for state legislators to approve a law that would allow tax increment financing to be used in counties for development of projects such as his. Recently, something similar to TIF was approved, named the enhanced employment district, but it should work just as well, he said.

TIF — a method of financing development with the projected gains in tax revenue that will result from that development — already is available at The Highlands site. Minard said TIF funding will be used to cover a portion of the infrastructure work there. The remainder of that work, in addition to the rides and park itself, will be covered by his companies’ private investors.

His companies include a consulting firm named AMS, which he said generates much of the money he needs to build theme parks; Endeavor, which he described as a parent or holding company; and Wild Escape. He formed a limited liability company named Crystal Mountain West Virginia for the Wheeling Wild Escape project. He aims to build 20 Wild Escapes across the country.

“Just because we don’t have Wild Escapes open doesn’t mean we don’t have the revenue,” Minard said.

Minard said one of his current theme park projects under construction is Belle Island Village in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Past projects that members of his team have been involved with include Universal Islands of Adventure and Navy Pier in Chicago.

When he formed AMS, the company did more consulting and managing of parks. His team, the members of which are scattered across the country, include his brother, John Minard, who has worked in the amusement sector for 35 years; Joyce Gray, chief marketing officer; and Jim Macy, chief operating officer, Minard said.

His brother John Minard, 51, was a big influence on him.

He purchased amusement rides and Steve Minard would work at concession stands and do other jobs at his carnivals in his native state of Iowa. Steve Minard decided to break away from the business, going to college to learn about finance.

But after working in that sector with Ernst and Young, Minard wanted to unleash his creativity.

“I probably get more involved than they like in the designing,” he said. “I come up with the concepts and they make it pretty. ... It really is who I am.”

Minard was tight-lipped about his rides, only revealing the names of two of his roller coasters — Shock Tower and Wild Flyer.

He said he also cannot reveal the rides’ storage locations, as in the past people have broken into buildings and stolen steel, copper and computer components from the rides.

“We had to put guards on things,” he said.

Before ever purchasing a ride, Minard tests a prototype. For example, he test rode the Wild Flyer, which he described as a hybrid ski lift and coaster, built by 3DBA in Belgium.

The Shock Tower, he said, was built by Maurer, a German company that engineers bridges and coasters.

He describes it as “the world’s highest inversion” coaster.

“It has a lot of air time on it — like six seconds; that’s a lot,” Minard noted.

In addition to getting the permits, as soon as the building pad is ready, Minard said construction of the park can begin. The county first must fill in a valley that contains a small stream, and since the Army Corps is in charge of U.S. waterways, it also is in charge of doling out permits related to such streams. Once filled in, Minard said, nothing could be constructed atop that portion of the 125-acre building site. The ground would need to settle for at least six months to a year. In the meantime, a parking lot could be situated there, he noted.

 

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