IRVINE – Nearly a decade after finding out Wild Rivers Park would be replaced by hundreds of Irvine Co. apartments, Mike Riedel plans to make one more effort to get the OK to rebuild the water park in Irvine.

Riedel, president of Wild Rivers, plans to take his case for relocating the shuttered Irvine water park to the Orange County Great Park before Irvine officials next week. He has scheduled a presentation for the Great Park board during its 2 p.m. Tuesday meeting.

“We are continuing our search for land to develop a new and improved Wild Rivers within the Great Park or elsewhere in Orange County,” he said.

Rebuilding, on about 27 acres, would run about $45 million, Riedel estimated. That’s twice the size of the land recently set aside for a 270,000-square-foot public ice complex and training facility for the Anaheim Ducks.

It’s unclear where it would be situated within the park.

“We’ve been involved in this for an awfully long time,” he said. “We have the money locked down and we’re going to produce a lot of jobs and cash for the city through rent. It just makes sense.”

After the Irvine Co.-owned land was rezoned by the City Council in 2006 for residential use, the real estate firm announced it would not renew the water park’s long-term lease.

Wild Rivers eked out a few more summers, due to the struggling real estate market, but closed in 2011 after a quarter century in Irvine.

In its place would go Los Olivos, a 1,750-apartment community.

The year it closed, Riedel approached Irvine officials about relocating to the Great Park but was referred to the county, which had a sliver of land near the park. At the time, Wild Rivers officials estimated the cost of rebuilding at the Great Park at $28 million.

However, Riedel’s proposal to reopen the water park within the county’s 100-acre strip of property to the south of the Great Park didn’t work out.

The company signed a lease, but that contract was terminated after funding fell through; by the time money was lined up again, county officials had changed their mind about how to develop the Great Park-adjacent property, Riedel said.

In 2015, the county announced plans to rezone the 100-acre site to the south of the park for offices, shops, residences and a hotel.

Riedel said this bid could be Wild Rivers’ final effort to reopen in Irvine.

“We’re going to make one last stand here,” he said. “We’re certainly ready to go.”

Contact the writer: sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com