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Kentucky Tourism gives initial OK for ark park incentives
(Stephenie Steitzer • Louisville Courier-Journal • December 20, 2010)

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority granted preliminary approval Monday for up to $43 million in tax incentives to be awarded to developers of a creationism theme park expected to open in 2014 in Northern Kentucky.

Before final approval is given, the authority will require the developer to pay for an independent study that would determine whether the project meets criteria set forth in the 1996 law that created the tourism-development incentives.

Ark Encounter, which will feature a 500-foot wooden reproduction of Noah's Ark containing live animals such as giraffes, is projected to cost as much as $172.5 million and create 500 full-time and 400 part-time jobs.

The park, on 800 acres in Grant County off Interstate 75, also will include a Walled City, live animal shows, a reproduction of the Tower of Babel, a 500-seat special-effects theater, an aviary and a first-century Middle Eastern village.

It's expected to draw 1.6 million visitors a year.

Cary Summers, the lead consultant for the project, said a survey of the U.S. population found that 60 percent of those polled would be interested in visiting such a park.

“There's a high, high interest in the subject matter we presented,” he said.

Summers said the park could break even at 750,000 to 1 million visitors a year.

The proposed tax incentives have garnered mixed reactions from atheists and church and state legal experts as to whether it is constitutional to grant incentives to a religiously-themed project.

Bill Dexter, general counsel for the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, said it is constitutional because the incentives program was established 14 years ago and does not exist solely to benefit the Ark Encounters project.

The Kentucky Tourism Development Act has been used for other projects across the state, such as the Newport Aquarium and the Kentucky Speedway, which received final approval Monday for up to $20.5 million in incentives to expand.

Under the tourism law, developers can recover up to 25 percent of the project's cost. The state returns to developers the sales tax paid by visitors on admission tickets, food, gift sales and lodging costs. Developers have 10 years to reach the 25 percent threshold.

Todd Cassidy, executive director of the Cabinet's Office of Financial Incentives, said during the authority meeting that questions have been raised as to whether the developers have conducted a feasibility study, whether it is credible and whether the governor or cabinet officials have seen it.

He said the tourism law does not require developers to conduct a feasibility study because the state doesn't repay the money if the park fails to meet its projects for ticket, souvenir and concessions sales.

“Whether or not the project is profitable really is not the concern of the state,” Cassidy said.

The state's consultant study would instead focus on whether at least 25 percent of the visitors would be from other states, whether developers would spend at least $1 million on the project, whether it would be open to the public for at least 100 days a year and whether the project would take away business from existing tourism attractions in the state.

“The real key for our analysis is the net positive fiscal impact,” he said.

Summers said the park's private investors are not seeking commercial loans or bonds at this time. The park is being developed by the for-profit Ark Encounter LLC, which is not required to disclose its investors.

Answers in Genesis, a nonprofit organization that runs the Creation Museum in Boone County, will run the park once it is built.

KENTUCKY UPDATE

Quote:

Kentucky Tourism gives initial OK for ark park incentives
(Stephenie Steitzer • Louisville Courier-Journal • December 20, 2010)

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority granted preliminary approval Monday for up to $43 million in tax incentives to be awarded to developers of a creationism theme park expected to open in 2014 in Northern Kentucky.

Are religion and theme parks a good mix?
Comments 96

By Jayne Clark, USA TODAY

Plans for a religious theme park featuring a Noah's Ark of biblical proportions has generated controversy since it was announced that the project would receive $35 million in tax rebates.

Ark Encounter, a $150 million theme park that will present a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, is set to open in 2014 in Grant County, Ky., southwest of Cincinnati. It has the support of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, who argues that it's an entertainment, not a religious complex, that will create jobs and attract 1.6 million visitors a year.

READ MORE: Full-scale replica of Noah's Ark planned in Kentucky

It does not have the support of Kentucky's second largest newspaper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, which editorialized, "Anyone who wants to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible has that right. However, the way the Beshear administration handled this makes it appear Kentucky either embraces such thinking or is desperate to take advantage of those who do."

The park's main attraction will be a longer-than-a-football-field, 500-foot-by-75-foot ark. Also planned: a 100-foot-high Tower of Babel.

But Answers in Genesis, the nonprofit ministry (which three years ago opened the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky.), is hardly the first to mix religion with entertainment. In fact, the Noah's Ark as amusement motif is already playing out at the Noah's Ark Water Park in Wisconsin Dells.

In Orlando, The Holy Land Experience invites visitors to step back 2000 years and "Experience Jesus" with sites like the Garden Tomb, Great Temple and Wilderness Tabernacle. Visitors pay up to $31 to watch Jesus get crucified and resurrected daily except Sundays. The park, open since 2001, is now run by the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Near Eureka Springs, Ark., the Great Passion Play ("More than just a destination. It's an experience.") re-creates the last days of Christ's life in a 4,100-seat amphitheater. There's also a gospel music dinner theater, two-hour Bible tour and 6,000-item Bible exhibit, plus a 10-foot slice of the Berlin Wall graffitied with words from the 23rd Psalm. The seven-story Christ of the Ozarks statue shows the way to the complex. Its website estimates the play has had 7 million viewers in its 40-plus years of performances.

Not all religious theme parks are so successful, though. Remember Heritage USA? The enterprise, started by televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in Fort Mill, S.C., had a good run after its 1978 opening. But 11 years later, it fell on hard times (as did the Bakkers) and closed.

A few years ago, Bible Park USA, a $175 million non-denominational for-profit theme park, was to have been built in Tennessee 35 miles southeast of Nashville. It never got off the ground. In March 2009, The Christian Post reported that the project had been shelved. Developers said political infighting among local politicians was jeopardizing project financing.

Posted Dec 14 2010 6:30AM

Ill bet that Fla gave Disneyworld similar incentives to locate the park in the state as they did for other tourist traps. The usual is a tax vacation and some offloads of taxes at local levels. SInce the Creation Park is not denyoing that its a religious based institution, they could benefit by even more incentives that are available only to the religious orgs.

From USA Today:

Quote:

Are religion and theme parks a good mix?
Comments 96

By Jayne Clark, USA TODAY

Plans for a religious theme park featuring a Noah's Ark of biblical proportions has generated controversy since it was announced that the project would receive $35 million in tax rebates.

But Answers in Genesis, the nonprofit ministry (which three years ago opened the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky.), is hardly the first to mix religion with entertainment. In fact, the Noah's Ark as amusement motif is already playing out at the Noah's Ark Water Park in Wisconsin Dells...

The McClatchy Company is a publicly traded American publishing company based in Sacramento, California. It operates 30 daily newspapers in 15 states and has an average weekday circulation of 2.2 million and Sunday circulation of 2.8 million.

I'm not sure how a profit making venture - when it's religious based - can get tax breaks and incentives with taxpayer monies since not all are christians.