Zellers buy Yuma Fun Factory

Yuma Fun Factory has new owners, who have plans not only to reopen it as the family entertainment center it was originally intended for, but also to add a water slide park.

“We signed the papers today,” Brice Zeller said Wednesday afternoon.

He explained that he and his wife, Becky, have been working on acquiring the long vacant Fun Factory since it closed in April of 2010 amid a financial tangle that included bankruptcy and foreclosure. As the lender, AEA Federal Credit Union eventually took over the property.

“We've been trying to reach a deal since it closed,” Zeller said. “We finally came to an agreement, the title was cleared up and we signed the papers to buy it from AEA.”

In the meantime, the Zellers had been buying up land around the Fun Factory, visiting water parks around the country and attending the annual water park convention.

In the near future, he will be headed to Canada to meet with WhiteWater West, the global leader in water park design, engineering and manufacturing. He said company representatives have already visited the proposed water park site down the hill to the north of Yuma Fun Factory and come up with a conceptual drawing.

The company will manufacture the tubes and slides for the water park and the construction work will be done by local contractors.

Zeller said he wants to move forward quickly on the renovations to Yuma Fun Factory and construction of the water park with a target opening on June 1, 2012, in time for the hot summer months.

In all, the water park and Fun Factory will cover 24 acres. The water park will be considered a medium-sized facility as water parks go, Zeller said. It will include a huge lazy river four times the size of the one at the Quechan Casino and Resort, a variety of pools, a total of 17 tubes and slides designed specifically for toddlers to adults, private party areas, concessions, lockers and a six-acre parking lot.

“There will be a very large kiddie area with pool, slides and tubes for the kids,” Zeller said.

And each year, Zeller intends to expand on the water park.

His goal is to provide an affordable venue for families to enjoy.

Two weeks ago he visited a water park in San Diego where it cost $10 to park, $10 to rent a locker and $40 apiece admission to the park, with concessions costing twice the price of food and beverages at a fast food restaurant.

“At our place, there will be no paid parking, and the prices will be what people can afford,” he said, adding that both daily and seasonal passes will be available.

As for Yuma Fun Factory, Zeller said it will still have bumper boats, go karts, miniature golf and arcade.

“There won't be a bar,” he emphasized. “We own bars. We don't need another bar.”

Instead, he said the facility that served as a bar in past will become a sports bar and grill. And it will close at 10 p.m.

“We don't want the bar crowd,” he said. “We want to return it to a family entertainment center like it was originally intended. The Fun Factory had a good start but it forgot it was designed for families. Our intent is to make it a 100 percent family facility.”

It's possible, he said, the Fun Factory will be ready to reopen before the water park is completed. If so, people will be able to watch the progress of the water park down the hill.

Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.