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Lee’s Summit schools to pay $6M for Paradise Park amusement park. Here are the plans

The Lee’s Summit school district plans to purchase Paradise Park, the longtime amusement park and family fun center, and convert it into an early education facility.

The school board this week unanimously voted to approve a letter of intent to purchase the 15-acre property, at 1021 N.E. Colbern Road, for $6 million. The sale is expected to close in August.

In 1991, Jon and Juli Ellis co-founded the park, which featured go-karts, mini golf, laser tag, batting cages and more. It closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened. Dozens of people have expressed sadness that the park, home to many memories over the past few decades, will be sold.

But Jon Ellis said that selling the property to the school district fits the family’s long-held mission.

“Discovery, learning and innovating has always been an integral part of the spirit of Paradise Park,” he said in a news release. “As we considered our next steps, it was important to find a buyer whose vision allowed for Paradise Park to continue to serve as a community space where our youth can thrive.”

The school district will turn it into a new early education center for pre-K programs, a priority spelled out when voters approved a $224 million bond issue last June.

The Lee’s Summit school district plans to purchase Paradise Park, 1021 N.E. Colbern Road, a family entertainment center that featured go-karts, miniature golf and batting cages. It will become an early education center.
The Lee’s Summit school district plans to purchase Paradise Park, 1021 N.E. Colbern Road, a family entertainment center that featured go-karts, miniature golf and batting cages. It will become an early education center.

The park includes an outdoor children’s garden, play areas, classrooms, administrative offices and other spaces.

Officials said many of the outdoor attractions will remain following the sale, but it was unclear which ones. Much of the indoor entertainment equipment and attractions will be repurposed by the Ellis family in other locations.

District officials said there is a need for a second space for early education, as the Great Beginnings Early Education Center programs have been at capacity for many years. The district runs satellite classrooms out of elementary schools that have extra space.

“Paradise Park will provide the type of modern, state-of-the-art multi-faceted campus needed to keep our promise to taxpayers: to open a second early education center to support our current satellite classrooms and the expansion of our early ed programs,” Superintendent David Buck said in the release.

But the park also could provide the district with indoor and outdoor space for other programs, such as work programs for secondary students or community events, Buck said.

The property was appraised at $8.9 million in May, according to district documents. It will be purchased with bond funding.

The district originally planned to locate the early education center in the north wing of Prairie View Elementary and renovate a portion of the district’s largest elementary school before the 2022-23 school year, officials said.

“However, the benefits of locating the expanded program at a facility that includes existing infrastructure to support early learners’ needs, as well as room to grow, compelled the district to evaluate locating the second early education center at Paradise Park,” officials said in the release.

District officials plan to instead locate part of the online academy program at Prairie View Elementary this coming school year.