Ark Encounter CEO Ken Ham Expanding Operations with Mega Property Purchase

Read time: 2 minutes 37 seconds

The Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky, has enjoyed international success since it opened in July 2016.

The attractions that the Answers in Genesis (AiG) group have constructed have seen over 10 million visitors to date.

Now, their God-given success is seeing another large project get underway: the purchase of the 205,000-square-foot former Toyota North America engineering and manufacturing headquarters from Corporex.

This gigantic expansion comes with a price tag of $31.3 million.

“The purchase of this building will save the ministry many tens of millions of dollars for several planned future projects and allow them to be implemented much more quickly, instead of years down the road,” CEO Ken Ham said in a press release. “Overall, this facility will provide a home for Answers Academy without having to build a major school complex.”

Answers Academy is a nondenominational Christian K-12 private school that serves the Northern Kentucky area. It was founded as an outreach of AiG to combat the secular worldview that contradicts the biblical worldview with the added benefits of a classical education.

“We teach kids the facts in different subject areas, but we also teach them how to think (logic courses). We use apologetics courses to supplement their Bible instruction and teach them how to defend their faith effectively. In other words, we integrate biblical worldview and apologetics into each area—math, science, history, literature and so forth,” according to their website.

The goal for the building is to house 450-500 K-12 students and also transfer a large portion of their staff over to the new facility.

“As Answers in Genesis continues to grow in many of its outreaches, including welcoming large crowds at our two attractions, the ministry will have an even larger economic impact on the region,” Ham said. “This includes seeing new hotels opening in the area to accommodate our visitors and future conference attendees, who are coming here from all over the world.”

As reported by CBN News, one of the next projects that AiG hopes to complete is a life-sized replica of the Tower of Babel next to the Ark Encounter.

According to AiG’s website, the goal for all of their attractions, schools and future projects is to “glorify God.”

“Our culture has been inundated by false views of our origins, teaching that we evolved from ape-like ancestors. While most evolutionists are probably not racists, the philosophy they hold is inherently racist, implying that some people groups are more closely related to apes than others,” AiG said in a press release.

“The Bible provides us with the true history of humanity. What people classify today as racial differences are rightly explained by the Babel event. Noah’s descendants scattered from Babel in family groups and settled new lands. Separated from one another, the various groups began to express distinct traits. No group is more ‘evolved’ than any other.

“We will proclaim the only solution to racism and every other sin that besets mankind: the gospel of Jesus Christ,” the statement concluded. {eoa}

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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.