BUENA PARK \u2014 Soon, visitors along the city\u2019s entertainment corridor on Beach Boulevard near Knott\u2019s Berry Farm could be taking selfies inside the mouth of a nearly 50-foot, three-dimensional shark.<\/p>\n
Or walk inside a pavilion and watch butterflies emerge from their chrysalises.<\/p>\n
Nearly a decade after construction stopped on a planned butterfly attraction, Buena Park officials are taking another shot at reviving the long-vacant 8.6-acre site with a similar concept.<\/p>\n
In July, the City Council unanimously approved plans from an Arizona-based family entertainment developer for Buena Park Boardwalk, an $85 million-plus project featuring a 75,000-square-foot aquarium and a 45,000-square-foot butterfly conservatory and atrium at 7711-7733 Beach Blvd.<\/p>\n
Buena Park Boardwalk LLC, a development group led by the Knishinsky family, is leading the project.<\/p>\n
The family is known for creating Arizona Boardwalk in Scottsdale, which features OdySea Aquarium, Butterfly Wonderland, UFO Experience and other attractions. The attractions reportedly welcome 2 million visitors a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly believe this is the right project for this community,\u201d Mayor Connor Traut said during the council meeting. \u201cClearly, the renderings we\u2019ve seen are beautiful. It\u2019s meaningful. It\u2019s different. This is going to be truly a hallmark of Buena Park alongside Knott\u2019s [Berry Farm] and some other great venues as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The developer anticipates opening the attraction in May 2029.<\/p>\n
Lack of Progress<\/p>\n
The development comes nearly a decade after a previous butterfly pavilion project failed, leaving the site vacant and tangled in litigation.<\/p>\n
The site once housed the Movieland Wax Museum, a Starbucks and Po Folks Restaurant and sits across from Porto\u2019s Bakery and Medieval Times, a popular dinner theater attraction where guests watch a live medieval-themed tournament.<\/p>\n
City officials and residents have been frustrated by the lack of progress and how much the city has spent on the property.<\/p>\n
The city first sold the land for $2.5 million to a developer in 2015 to build a butterfly pavilion, but construction stalled and the property changed owners in 2019.<\/p>\n
Buena Park bought the land back in 2022 for $9 million. The city tore down the abandoned construction in 2024 and later selected Buena Park Boardwalk for a new entertainment project.<\/p>\n
Matt Foulkes, the city\u2019s community and economic development director, said Buena Park Boardwalk must demonstrate sufficient financing before the property deal is finalized.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can assure you before we close escrow, the city will have all of the evidence it needs, including construction contracts, commitments from lending institutions, and whatever other financial capacity they need to demonstrate,\u201d Foulkes said. \u201cOnce it closes, the project will be completed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city is also providing significant financial support.<\/p>\n
Buena Park plans to sell the roughly 376,000-square-foot property to Buena Park Boardwalk for $3 million and provide up to $15 million from its Economic Development Fund to help cover project costs.<\/p>\n
New Tourism Attraction<\/p>\n
Buena Park Boardwalk will also feature restaurants, shops, an outdoor event space and a 50-foot-wide landscaped boardwalk linking the attractions.<\/p>\n
Renderings show a 47-foot-tall shark, about as tall as the nearby Rock & Brews guitar sign, protruding from the aquarium building, with oversized butterflies decorating the conservatory.<\/p>\n
Adi Knishinsky, representing Buena Park Boardwalk LLC, said the group has been interested in the location for eight years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very excited,\u201d he said. \u201cThe shark was my son\u2019s idea\u2026have a giant shark coming out of the ground going into the street. It takes an 11-year-old to design a building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmember Susan Sonne said after years of frustration over the site, she is eager to see another tourism attraction in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get to the point where we are today feels like a tremendous victory,\u201d Sonne said. \u201cI am tremendously excited by this project.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUENA PARK \u2014 Soon, visitors along the city\u2019s entertainment corridor on Beach Boulevard near Knott\u2019s Berry Farm could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-471095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}