No ‘Calibunga’: Plans for new Cal Expo water park fall through over nonpayment
Cal Expo’s plans for a new water park took a plunge this week after California Dreamin’ Entertainment, Inc. reportedly missed payments on its lease, documents from the event venue’s Board of Directors revealed.
Cal Expo events deputy general manager Marcia Shell wrote in a letter that California Dreamin’ breached its contract with Cal Expo. A report from Cal Expo’s Board of Directors stated that California Dreamin’ was past due on $202,730 in lease payments.
Cal Expo spokesperson Darla Givens in a statement wrote that California Dreamin’ was given a notice of breach of contract on Oct. 31 due to an “unresolved past-due balance.” She added that the deadline to repay this balance was Dec. 4. California Dreamin’ requested to extend this deadline to Dec. 18.
“A subsequent extension request was denied by the Cal Expo Long-Range Planning Committee on December 11, 2025,” Givens wrote in a statement. “Staff provided an informational update to the Board of Directors on January 23, 2026, noting the contract would be terminated on February 2, 2026, if the balance remained unresolved.”
California Dreamin’ CEO Steve Dooner wrote in a statement to The Sacramento Bee later in the week that the figure “referenced publicly” is associated with “lease restructuring and associated security requirements, not personal spending or misuse of funds.”
“Those matters are part of a broader business dispute that is being addressed through the proper channels,” Dooner wrote.
A long-term lease was originally signed in originally signed in 2023 for California Dreamin’ to take over Raging Waters, which shut down operations in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic after its previous operator since 2007, Palace Entertainment, declined to renew its lease.
The new park, which was to be known as Calibunga, was slated for 2024 and later delayed to a projected 2027 opening. Dooner told the Sacramento Business Journal in 2024 that the “best course of action is to create an entirely new park,” regarding Calibunga.
California Dreamin’ on its Facebook page last June posted photos and videos of demolition work underway at the planned Calibunga site at Cal Expo. It was not clear how far the company progressed in that phase of the project.
Cal Expo is now back in possession of the water park project, according to board meeting documents.
This story was originally published February 3, 2026 at 2:31 PM.
