Entertainment complex with restaurant, sand volleyball to open soon in Wichita suburb

A multi-sport and entertainment complex in Derby featuring a two-story restaurant is expected to open in either late spring or early summer.

The Sandbox at Derby, an 11.2-acre facility approved in early 2020 and hampered by COVID-19-related construction delays, will be located at 2412 N. Rock Road in Derby’s STAR bond district.

The Sandbox will offer sand volleyball, indoor and outdoor pickleball courts, cornhole and other games along with a full-service restaurant and bar, according to a news release.

The facility is being developed by Chas Tulipana, who owns a similar facility in Kansas City, Missouri, also called The Sandbox. The Derby complex will be four times the size of its Kansas City counterpart.

“The folks in Derby sold us on the community and now it’s time for us to give back,” Tulipana says. “This is a forward-looking city that wants to grow and we want to grow with them. A big part of our success will be our community involvement.”

Sales tax revenue bonds, or STAR bonds, are a state incentive designed to be used for tourist attractions that draw new money into Kansas. It’s difficult to track whether STAR bond projects are successful in drawing in the level of tourist activity that they advertise because the state doesn’t require cities to keep those statistics.

In 2017, Kansas issued nearly $20.5 million in bonds for the first phase of Derby’s STAR bond district, which is anchored by a life-sized animatronic dinosaur exhibit. The multi-sport and entertainment complex anchors phase two, which the state issued an additional $14.4 million in bonds for in 2020.

Tulipana told The Derby Informer in September that COVID delays have added $11 million of expenses to the project. A representative for Tulipana did not immediately respond to an email Thursday asking how much private money has been invested in The Sandbox.

Derby Destination Development pitched the city council last September on the third and final phase of the city’s STAR bond district. The new phase would include a year-round public access lagoon with beachfront activities, a glamping (glamorous camping) site and hotel among other things.

The city council is expected to vote on the final phase of the STAR bond district later this year.

This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 4:56 PM.