Kalahari Resorts invests $900M to build Virginia water park

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Dive Brief:

• Kalahari Resorts and Conventions and general contractor Hensel Phelps broke ground Oct. 20 on a new resort in Thornburg, Virginia, slated to open in 2026.
• With 907 guest rooms and suites, the 1.38 million-square-foot facility will be the Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin company’s fifth indoor waterpark in the U.S.
• Kevin Marshall, a member of the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors, said in the release that the Kalahari resort represents a $900 million investment that will generate plenty of construction jobs and stimulate economic growth in the region.

Dive Insight:

The project will include a 175,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, 150,000 square feet of convention and meeting space, a wave pool, 10 acres of outdoor pools and a 90,000-square-foot outdoor amusement park.

Kalahari has existing resorts in Wisconsin Dells, Sandusky, Ohio; the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania; and Round Rock, Texas. The company expects the Spotsylvania County location to draw visitors from Washington, D.C., Richmond, Virginia, and Baltimore via I-95.

Across the country, another company announced recently that it will invest $2 billion in a theme park rivaling the size of Disney’s Magic Kingdom Theme Park and Disneyland Park.

American Heartland is slated to open in 2026 in Vinita, Oklahoma. The 1,000-acre project from developer American Heartland, an affiliate of Branson, Missouri-based Mansion Entertainment Group, will also have an indoor water park, in addition to a 300-room hotel, 320-acre RV park and roller coasters.