Mattel’s preferred design firm has been hired by the Bradley Village Board.

By a 6-0 vote, the board approved a resolution for a $75,000 contract to construct the conceptual design layout for the planned 2-plus-acre indoor water park immediately southeast of Northfield Square mall.

The planned $90 million Mattel Wonder Indoor Waterpark complex will be located along Northfield Meadows Boulevard on property that most recently was a village-owned cornfield just east of the hotels there.

Obviously energized by the movement regarding the master plan, Bradley Mayor Mike Watson said, “Let’s get this project rolling.”

The project will house a year-round indoor water park and would be the new focal point for all of Kankakee County.

The village OK’d a contract with Orlando, Florida-based Martin Aquatic Design & Engineering.

According to the agreement, the conceptual master plan will take six to 10 weeks to complete. If work doesn’t begin in earnest until after the holidays, this phase of the project will not be completed until late February or mid-March.

Martin Aquatic has been working on Mattel theme parks in Orlando and an indoor park in Omaha, Nebraska.

Martin Aquatic also has been involved with the Mall of America Mystery Cove Waterpark in Bloomington, Minnesota; the Showboat Waterpark in Atlantic City; and Serengeti Springs at the Hattiesbury Zoo, among many other projects.

This phase will be the first of many that Martin Aquatic will have with the Bradley project. Design and engineering will follow.

This design and engineering phase will include detailed scope for both aquatic consulting services and thematic creative services provided by Ectovox, the experimental design division of Martin Aquatic.

After the meeting, Watson said the goal remains for site work to begin in the summer and construction to follow shortly after. To this point, the project remains on track to open either in late 2027 or early 2028.

If all falls into place, the development would attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to this section of northeast Illinois and likely spur even more development in terms of serving travelers, meaning more hotels, restaurants and retail.

This development – especially with the Mattel name attached to it – would become the largest economic engine within Kankakee County.

The cost of what previously was said to be the largest indoor water park in Illinois has grown by about $10 million, based on the Mattel-Bradley agreement.

On the flip side, Watson and village partners believe the Mattel partnership has the ability to increase annual sales by upward of 30%.

Watson and the Village Board had been planning to develop the water park on their own. Mattel, however, reached out to the village about the development.

The village shared its vision, and Mattel expressed interest in further discussion. The two sides continued having talks, and Watson, finance director Rob Romo and Todd Gereaux of village-contracted engineering firm MG2A traveled to Florida about three weeks ago to go over final details of the partnership.

Financing for the development will come through the sale of a pair of about $80 million of government obligation bonds, which the Village Board already has approved.

The bonds are to be financed through a combination of village tax increment financing revenues, hotel taxes and business district taxes. These three revenue streams are already in place.

It had first been announced that the park would be located next to the largely vacant Northfield Square mall. It was expected that the mall and the park would be connected.

However, the village recently determined that the park would be better suited a short distance southeast of that spot, pushing it closer to the interstate, which offers greater exposure.