Plans for a water park as part of the new sports complex under construction in North Myrtle Beach have gone down the drain.

The city, which is building the sports complex, ended negotiations with the developer who wanted to build the water park because the company didn’t provide a required letter of commitment assuring funding, city spokesman Pat Dowling said.

“It’s not going to happen,” he said. “We closed negotiations with them.”

The city was negotiating to lease land to Global Attractions, which would build the water park. Because the city planned to lease the land, it wanted assurances that the financing for the project was secure so the city wouldn’t be left at risk, Dowling said.

“Then we’ve got a big hole there where something else could have gone,” he said. “It would have been a nice amenity to have but the bottom line is...we can’t have that liability.”

Global Attractions could not be reached for comment this week.

Construction is underway on the North Myrtle Beach Park & Sports Complex, which will have six baseball-softball fields, up to eight soccer-football-lacrosse fields, an amphitheater, playgrounds and picnic shelters.

The goal is to attract sports tourism events that will pump money into the city’s economy, especially during the less busy times of winter, fall and spring.

The complex aims to open in February 2014.

Contact DAWN BRYANT at 626-0296 or at dbryant@thesunnews.com or follow her at Twitter.com/TSN_dawnbryant.