For the last decade or so, Fort Rapids

has stood as North America's largest

abandoned indoor water park. And it's

easy to see why that is. The property

has a, let's say, tumultuous history.

From insane financial failures to a

truly appalling reputation, one which

ultimately forced its closure and left

little chance for it to be redeveloped.

Its creepy and ghostly state of

isolation is a testament to that. So, in

this 103rd episode of Abandoned, let's

find out what happened here. This is the

Fort Rapids Water Park and Resort in

Columbus, Ohio.

This episode of Abandoned is sponsored

by Storyblocks. To start telling better

stories with the tools that I use, head

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for a limited time, and that discount is

only available through my link. The

building began its life in 1978 as the

swanky new Hilton Inn East, located, as

the name suggests, on the east side of

Columbus, Ohio. It was built just off

the relatively new Interstate 70 and not

far from the International Airport. The

site was made up of a single lodging

tower complete with 292 rooms, as well

as a pool and several ballrooms. The

Hilton would continue to operate through

the years as a successful property,

though one which would ultimately change

flags. This would happen in around 1990

when the Holiday in Chain would purchase

the sites and the hotel would now be

rebranded as the Holiday in Columbus

East. Again, the property was seemingly

operating quite successfully. And while

there honestly isn't a whole lot of

information out there on it, obviously

this was a holiday in property which

developers saw potential with. In 2004,

Platinum Ridge Properties, which was now

the private company which owned the

Holiday Inn, announced a $32 million

reimagining of the site. This would

include expanding its footprints and

making the rather modest hotel into a

destination indoor water park. With a

Wild West theme chosen, the now named

Fort Rapids Resort was an intriguing

business proposition. The nearest major

indoor water park was essentially on the

other side of the state and this

60,000qt park would be the largest in

the area. The company projected that

around 75% of customers would be

visiting outside of the general Columbus

area. So this really was going to be a

big draw for those an hour or two

outside of the city. So by 2005,

construction was well underway. And on

May 22nd, 2006, the Holiday Inn, Hotel

and Suites, Columbus East Fort Rapids

Waterpark had opened to the public. Wow,

that's a long name. When it did, the

whole property looked quite a bit

different. From the exterior, a large

parking lot with overflow was added, and

much of the exterior structures have

been painted brown to match the new Wild

West theming. Aside from the reimagining

of the now 277 room Holiday in Tower,

another two brand new structures were

added. A two-story villa structure was

constructed to the west, adding another

66 suites to the inventory, some of

which sleeping up to 12 guests across a

loft style two floors. On the opposite

end, all attached through the main

hotel, was the real star of the show,

the water park. This impressive space

was filled with all sorts of

attractions, including various pools,

oversized hot tubs, a lazy river, and 12

water slides. In addition to a kitty

area, there would also be signature tube

slides, and a 40ft tall water play

structure with a large bucket, which

would dump thousands of gallons of water

throughout the day. In addition to all

of this, there was also a large arcade,

a full-ervice restaurant called the Iron

Grill, a saloon style bar and lounge,

plus two other quicks service options.

Developers had also planned for even

further expansion should they need it.

They purchased additional plots of land

where they wanted to build condominiums

as a part of the experience. This was

planned to be constructed at a later

date. This was Holiday Inn's 11th indoor

water park, and initially the property

was proving to be very popular and

opened with really good reviews. That

initial hype, however, would soon taper

off in a rather big way. After just 2

years of operation, Fort Rapids had seen

a hotel occupancy rate of around 45%.

A shockingly low rate compared to other

hotels in the area. The developers had

clearly been let down by the performance

of the park. And already they were not

only indicating that the condo element

had been scrapped, but they were also

exploring a potential sale of the site.

While they were doing that, and thanks

in part to the nationwide recession, the

property had gone into foreclosure,

seemingly in a desperate state to

offload the failing park, Platinum Ridge

had finally sold the property off in

2010. Despite telling the Columbus

Dispatch in early 2008, that they would

expect a sale to exceed around $45

million, around the same amount they had

already invested into the property, the

final 2010 sale would come in at just $6

million. The new owners were known as

Joo Financial LLC, a rather small

company, not all that experienced in

property ownership, and seemingly very

inexperienced with water park

operations. They were mostly known for

one of their joint owners, Jamal Lewis,

a former NFL star who played for the

Cleveland Browns, though Lewis would

ultimately file for bankruptcy in 2012.

By that point, however, he had already

given full operations to the other half

of his company. Regardless, this new

owner vowed to bring the park back to

its full potential, which could include

a renovation and introduction of new

attractions. Still, though, the park

continued to suffer from poor occupancy

and park attendance. All you need to do

is look at satellite photos of the

parking lot through the years. Clearly,

not many people, at least anecdotally

through these snapshots, were visiting

the park. Perhaps the public perception

and ongoing conditions inside the park

may have explained this, though. For

years, the resort had slowly earned a

reputation for being poorly run and

generally just in disarray. Trip Advisor

reviews by 2014 showed stained carpets

and floors, worn out furniture, and

broken fixtures. All while other review

sites complained of unprofessional staff

and lackluster, cheap feeling

entertainment, photos of which seemed to

back up. However, as even more time

passed, the condition of the resort only

got worse. By 2015, the Better Business

Bureau had given the park their lowest

rating, an FCORE. That's a brutal rating

which followed 38 formal complaints.

This is all while the property had been

cited 75 times in one year for health

code violations. 49 of them were

critical and 22 being repeat violations.

Some of these are pretty heinous, too.

State inspectors found that the resort

had bacteria in the seafood buffet,

dirty and stained bedding to much more

serious offenses like severe chlorine

exposure leading to 32 people getting

sick and even using one of the meeting

rooms as sleeping areas for construction

workers and resort staff. On top of all

of this, customers reported frequent

sightings of bed bugs and cockroaches.

Obviously, this was all very awful, and

Fort Rapids deservedly earned a very

negative local reputation. As if the

park and hotel weren't being poorly run

enough, the property also received a

fire code violations, which seemingly

was the final straw. By February 16th,

2016, the property had its operating

permit pulled by the city, and the park,

as a result, abruptly shut their doors.

As customers demanded refunds, the

handwritten sign outfront claimed that

there were no employees on site and no

power to the building. This was while

their website stated that the resort was

closed for renovations. The owners

claimed that the site would be closed

for the next few months while

renovations were being made to address

all of the issues. However, by July of

that year, their Facebook page had

changed to list the resort as

permanently closed. And not long after,

the site would go up for auction with a

minimum bid of $3 million. Ultimately, a

California businessman named Jeff Okern

purchased the property for a mere $2.5

million. His plan was to transform the

property and its adjacent land into a

hotel soccer facility. However, Kerna

would later be unable to acquire the

surrounding parcels of land, which meant

that any immediate work on the building

would be delayed or cancelled outright.

While this was all happening, the

condition of the building only got

worse. In January 2018, a sprinkler

water pipe had burst on one of the top

floors of the former Holiday and Tower.

This led to water flowing down the

interior of the structure and pouring

out of cracks in the facade and through

air conditioning vents. Since it was

winter, all of this water froze, leading

to massive sheets of ice on both faces

of the tower. This was also around the

same time when explorers began finding

their way inside. Despite security being

on site, since it was such a massive

structure, explorers in 2019 were able

to capture the resort with power still

on. Many of the hotel rooms were in

nearperfect condition, almost like the

property had closed the day before. The

water park itself was illuminated only

by a single lonely pillar light. The

pools and slides were all of course

drained, though the tubes remained

inflated. Outside, the exterior of the

building was clearly seeing some decay

with signs falling apart, landscaping

overgrown, and the exterior slides

showing some weathering. This

particularly is what the city took issue

with. In 2022, the city issued various

code violations, mainly due to fire

safety as well as general upkeep on the

site. Until the property was brought up

to code, the owners would be fined

$1,000 a day. Meanwhile, the decaying

resort was put back up for sale at an

asking price of around $6.5 million.

Nobody, however, would make a bid.

Still, many of the code violations had

not been addressed, and by 2023,

security was no longer being paid, now

leaving the building unprotected. During

this time, it was revealed that the

owner had also been neglecting a hotel

property in Michigan. And because of

that, he was actually facing jail time

there after racking up unchecked code

violations. In fact, it seemed like the

same thing was going to happen in

Columbus. By 2024, the city was getting

very annoyed by the lack of

communication and action by the owner.

So Jeff Kern was held in contempt of

court and his daily fines increased to

$2,000 a day and was ordered to pay an

additional $199,000

in fines. He was also required to submit

a rehabilitation plan for the property

by August, something he ultimately never

did. after he failed to appear at a

court-ordered compliance hearing. A

warrant was then sent out for his

arrest. While all of this drama was

happening, the site itself, now

unprotected, continued to decline as

more people got inside. By 2024, the

floodgates were more or less opened.

Everyone from kids and vandals to

homeless people and urban explorers had

all gotten inside. many of them posting

videos and photos from the interior

showing the quickly decaying structure.

Videos inside, particularly from Lord

Explorers, showed a rather intact yet

clearly neglected interior. Amazingly,

power remained on in portions of the

building, particularly in the hotel

wing, which still had furniture in

place, bottles of soap on the vanities,

and even some rooms with beds still

made. Back down in the main level was

the lobby. A rather cleared out space,

which had smoke damage from the

fireplace being used, as well as a thick

coat of dust on the carpets. Even worse

was the gift shop and restaurant with

broken glass, drawers, and shelves

rummaged through and furniture mildoing.

Mold caked on some of the drywall,

likely from the flood damage back in

2018. While over in the staff areas,

linen remained stacked neatly in the

laundry rooms. Of course, the real

spectacle here was the main water park.

Through the decaying hallways and water

damaged ceiling tiles was the entrance

to Fort Rapids itself. The water park

was a ghostly space. Gone were the

active water attractions and the many

guests who enjoyed it. Now the park was

a wide open canyon of concrete and

colorful steel structures. Again, all

with a layer of dust and grime.

Surprisingly though, the park itself was

in rather good condition. The vast open

atrium spared from a lot of the

graffiti. The whole park was in complete

isolation since its closure and looked

pretty insane as a result. By the sheer

amount of people getting into the

building, though, and with wide openen

holes leading to easy accessibility, it

was only a matter of time before serious

damage within would be done. During a

late evening in October 2024, a fire had

broken out inside the two-story villa

structure. The fire would quickly grow

out of control, and with difficulty from

firefighters to contain it, a

significant portion of the northern roof

had caved in. Much of the building had

been damaged. And while no cause had

been formally determined, it is easy to

assume that the origin was likely arson.

Though, it should be pointed out that

there was still power on inside the

structure. At the time of the fire,

efforts were actually being made to sell

the property. this time to another

California-based developer who planned

to turn the site into apartments. Their

plans, however, were obviously put into

question once the fire broke out. Images

that followed the fire showed pretty

substantial damage. Finally, though, the

city had enough. In December of the same

year, the city moved to have a court

order, which would essentially seize the

land. They would then transfer the

property to another management company

which in collaboration with a church had

already submitted plans for a

redevelopment of the site. They called

it Hamilton Rising, a new residential

project that would repurpose the

existing site for more than 300

residential units. This reimagining

would also have a community center

component, likely within the former

waterpark. And really, that brings us to

today. With the site now in their hands,

Fort Rapids finally seems to be on the

right path for redevelopment. And what a

path that has been. For a building which

started its life as an upmarket Hilton

hotel, it's hard to believe that the

bones of this 1970s structure ultimately

saw such a massive investment. Remember,

developers poured over $40 million into

this property. all to turn it into

something that never saw its full

potential. With mediocre reviews, rather

bland lodging, high operating expenses,

and a looming recession, Fort Rapids

would ultimately fail to ever make back

its original investment. It turns out

that a water park in the Columbus area

just wasn't the right move. When it was

purchased for just pennies on the

dollar, it turns out that that low

purchase price just attracted lower

quality owners that didn't know what

they were doing. After skimping out on

basically all expenses and sending the

resort's reputation into a nose dive,

the owners proved to be so incompetent

that the property had to be shut down as

a hazard. Its legacy and ultimate

failure was just frozen in time

thereafter. A relic of what happened.

This is all for a park, too, that wasn't

even that old. Remember, it opened in

2006. But finally, the now secure yet

clearly distressed former resort may

finally see a reuse after all. It's been

a crazy, I'm sure, very aggravating

story for a lot of people. But it's also

a perfect series of events which

ultimately left an astonishing indoor

abandoned water park left in isolation.

A site many were obviously captivated

by, me included. But now a repurpose is

finally on the way. And whether or not

that will break the cycle of failure for

this property, well, only time will

tell.

You may have noticed some rather

beautiful aerial footage of Columbus,

Ohio in this video, and that's all

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link. Anyway guys, my name is Jake and

thank you very much for watching.

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