Mall property taxes could help fund the project. If the city approves the plan, construction on the Mystery Cove water park would begin this spring.
By Eva Herscowitz
The Minnesota Star Tribune
September 30, 2025 at 11:00AM
Bloomington officials will vote Tuesday on whether to move ahead with a complicated plan to fund the $432 million Mystery Cove water park at the Mall of America. (Provided)
The financing agreement includes several backstops if Triple Five can’t repay the loans, including a $20 million lender-controlled securities account that can be converted into cash if the project doesn’t perform. And the Ghermezian family, the developers behind megamalls in Minnesota, Canada and New Jersey, have agreed to personally guarantee the project for an unspecified amount.
Hagen said those terms protect taxpayers should the water park go into foreclosure, allowing a new ownership group to swoop in. Even if the water park were to face that undesirable outcome, it would still generate jobs, tax revenue and tourism for the time the attraction remains open, he said.
“The regional public investment carries much less risk now than it did a year and a half ago” because of the guarantees, Hagen said.
New era for the Mall of America?
City leaders have framed the Mystery Cove water park as a boon to Bloomington.
In addition to attracting an estimated 700,000 annual visitors and generating millions in tax revenue, the amenity will produce profits that executives hope to invest in other mall projects, they said. Ideas include an athletic facility, exhibit hall and sports medicine space.
“We’ve been talking about those about as long as we’ve been talking about a water park,” Hagen said. “But we’ve never had a funding source to move them forward.”
about the writer
Eva Herscowitz
Reporter
Eva Herscowitz covers Dakota and Scott counties for the Star Tribune.
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