LAKE DELTON — A 65-foot Ferris wheel, a carousel and dozens of arcade games will open here this year.

Only it won't be summer and the mosquitoes will be nowhere in sight.

Kalahari Resort in Lake Delton has broken ground on a $15 million indoor entertainment facility that will include carnival rides, a 24-lane bowling alley and a ropes course and zip line.

And when the 110,000-square-foot addition opens Dec. 19, it will be possible to walk more than a quarter mile from one end of the resort to the nearby movie theaters without stepping foot outside. The two-story center also will be connected to the 740-room hotel.

The center, which doesn't yet have a name, is scheduled to open just in time for the holiday rush that brings thousands of people to the Wisconsin Dells area.

Indoor walkways will be built to connect the facility to the neighboring Damon's restaurant, which was recently purchased by the Kalahari, and the 15-screen Desert Star Cinema, said Todd Nelson, owner of the resort.

"What we found is that our guests need more to do than just water," Nelson said. "We think it's the next direction our business is going in. It's more things for people to do."

Similar projects are planned for the Kalahari Resort under construction in Fredericksburg, Va., and the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio, Nelson said.

The Lake Delton project, near Interstate 90-94 and Highway 12, will include a carousel similar to one at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, a two-story laser tag area, go-carts, miniature golf, two golf simulators, a sports bar, pizza restaurant and a dance floor.

The addition is expected to employ from 70 to 90 people and will include a 65-foot-tall and 75-foot-wide glass wall that will allow motorists on the Interstate to see the Ferris wheel and other rides inside the African-themed building, Nelson said.

The resort, which opened in 2000, has a 125,000-square-foot indoor waterpark and 100,000 square feet of meeting and convention space in addition to restaurants, shopping and a spa.

"It's all part of Kalahari's under-one-roof concept," said Shannon McCarthy, a Kalahari spokeswoman.

The project is the third major indoor entertainment facility near Highway 12 and the Interstate.

Last year, the Waterman family, which built Noah's Ark Water Park and what is now Great Wolf Lodge, opened an 80,000-square-foot indoor entertainment center that includes a 24-lane bowling alley, amusement rides and 125 arcade games.

Knuckleheads Bowling & Family Entertainment Center is adjacent to Buffalo Phil's Grille, a three-story, 35,000-square-foot restaurant that seats more than 1,000 diners, also owned by the Watermans and which opened at about the same time as the entertainment facility.

In 2003, Great Wolf Lodge opened Wiley's Woods, a 20,000-square-foot play structure that features game consoles, slides, bridges, nets and mazes and a moving and talking tree that is packed with gadgets used in the game.