MONTICELLO, NY — Ken Ellis, Managing Partner of the Kartrite Hotel and Indoor Waterpark, was the featured speaker at an even held in a tent on July 24 outside the facility, which is undergoing construction about a mile away from Resorts World Catskills.

Ellis and his partner Arthur Berry III also own and operate the Camelback Lodge & Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark in the Pocono Mountains about 90 miles away.  The two were able to build the indoor waterpark in Pennsylvania with help from a real estate investment company called EPR Properties.  Ellis told the more than 100 assembled guests in the tent that EPR conditioned their support on that project on a commitment from Ellis and Berry that if an opportunity arose to build a waterpark at the site of a casino in Sullivan Count, they would jump in.

That was before the residents of New York State had voted to amend the state’s constitution to allow casino gambling in the state, and there seemed to be quite a few hurdles. In any case,  Ellis and Berry accepted the terms and now the waterpark in Sullivan County is scheduled to open in March.  Ellis said he was glad it came to be.

Most members of the Sullivan County legislature were at the event along with Town of Thompson and other local officials.  The evening was sponsored by the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development and the Sullivan Catskills Visitors Association (SCVA). 

Also offering remarks about the current economic and tourism boom in the county were SCVA CEO and President Roberta Byron-Lockwood, Partnership CEO and President Marc Baez, county Chairman Luis Alvarez, and Town of Thompson Supervisor Bill Reiber.

When the waterpark is complete it will have some 350 rooms and suites, and a "fantastic luxury lodge experience set right in the mountains.”