The Pearl River Valley Water Supply District once again has control of the property where Rapids on the Reservoir once stood.
The land has been vacant for 15 years since the popular water park was torn down. It’s been five years since plans to develop a baseball training academy on the site were announced but never got off the ground.
Rankin County Chancellor John C. McLaurin issued a judgement last December against P360 Performance Sports in the amount of $507,975, which represents the amount of delinquent lease payments it owed the district.
“We have to go after it and collect it,” said Adam Choate, executive director of the district.
McLaurin also awarded the district all attorney’s fees, expenses and costs incurred in enforcing the provisions of the lease and assignment of the lease to P360.
P360 announced plans in October 2020 to develop 24 acres of the 27-acre parcel at 24 Spillway Road as the company’s headquarters and a new baseball academy and training center, turf baseball fields to host high school showcase and youth level events, athlete performance training, sports medicine and more. Three acres near Spillway Road that weren’t suitable for baseball fields due to fly balls were to be subleased for retail use such as a restaurant.
Nothing was ever built on the site.
Chris Snopek, who played for the University of Mississippi and then played for the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red Sox, was listed as the registered agent for P360.
According to the P360 website, Snopek founded P360 Performance Sports in 2002. Snopek played baseball for the University of Mississippi and went on to play for the Chicago White Sox and then the Boston Red Sox. He played a total of 10 years in professional baseball.
Snopek established Performance Sports Academy in Flowood after he retired from his professional baseball career. The academy moved to Ridgeland in 2012 and changed its name to P360 Performance Sports.
P360’s lease with the district called for it to pay $9,355 in monthly payments to the district.
Of the 21 lease payments due from Oct. 15, 2020, to June 15, 2022, P360 made eight of the payments, according to the lawsuit.
For many years, a sign on the property promoted the local baseball/softball academy that was to be constructed on the property. That signage was removed and replaced by one advertising an auction to be conducted by Head Auctions & Realty at 11 a.m. on July 2, 2025.
Choate spoke with Head Auctions & Realty and P360 about a party interested in taking over the lease but couldn’t disclose the name of the party.
The auction seemed like a longshot because a party taking over the lease would have had to pay the $430,303 in lease payments owned at that time and the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District would have had to sign off on usage of the property.
“We would have to approve the use of the property,” Choate said. “If someone wanted to put in something that wasn’t family-friendly, we would say, ‘No.”’
Rapids, a popular place to cool off in the summer, was known for tall, winding water slides, a wave pool and other features. The water park operated from 1984 until 2007 and was torn down in 2010.
Plans to build condominiums on the former water park site and then apartments went nowhere.
The property is one of the district’s most highly visible pieces of land available for lease as thousands of drivers pass by it every day as they cross the spillway.
Two other highly visible pieces of property on the reservoir are available for lease. One is a 50-acre site at 115 Madison where the district’s former headquarters was located, and the other is 400 wooded acres between the Fox Bay and Windward Bluff subdivisions on Northshore Parkway,
