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Resort planned for Grapevine
Wisconsin firm to build 400-suite hotel with indoor water park
12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 14, 2005
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

A Wisconsin hotel and water park operator plans to build a 400-room resort in Grapevine.

Great Wolf Resorts Inc. of Madison said Tuesday that it will break ground next spring on its 400,000-square-foot project on State Highway 26 north of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

The six-story family resort will be located south of the huge Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center and near the Grapevine Mills mall.

Although the Gaylord complex is in Texas and Southwestern styles, the Great Wolf Lodge will be constructed in a "north woods" theme, with a log exterior and giant totem poles out front.

Along with 400 hotel suites, the complex will have an 80,000-square-foot indoor entertainment area with a water park, arcade, spa, fitness facility, restaurants and gift shops.

"The central location near Dallas and Fort Worth, and adjacent to the D/FW Airport makes Grapevine a very strategic location in this region," John Emery, Great Wolf Resorts' chief executive officer, said in a statement. "Great Wolf Lodge will complement Grapevine as an emerging upscale entertainment destination."

The resort is scheduled to open in the summer or fall of 2007. Cushman & Wakefield of Texas arranged the purchase of the land.

An agreement between the city of Grapevine and Great Wolf is scheduled for a vote at next Tuesday's council meeting.

City officials would not say what might be part of the agreement.

"We are more than pleased to have them in our city if things get worked out," said acting City Manager Bruno Rumbelow.

Great Wolf Resorts is currently building four theme resorts and is expanding two others. The company operates complexes in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Kansas and Virginia.

At its Wisconsin lodge, nightly rates range from $269 for the smallest suite to almost $700 for a condo.

Great Wolf Resorts bills itself as the "nation's largest owner, operator and developer of drive-to family resorts featuring indoor water parks."

"Mostly we have families who come and stay with us, usually for two or three days," said company spokeswoman Erin Ruppenthal. "Most of our guests will come from a 300-mile radius."