Taking the next step in the development of the adventure travel resort, Waveyard Development, LLC plans to develop the first outdoor super park and resort destination. Waveyard Development is currently in negotiations for a 200+ acre site located just outside Phoenix, Ariz. The company expects to break ground in 2007 with a grand opening in early spring 2010.
BOSS spoke with the founders of Waveyard Development, Richard Mladick and Jerry Hug who said the goal behind the venture is “to blur the line between the retail, the education, and the participation in the sport. To take someone who is a beginner, introduce them in a controlled environment, and allow them to build up to a world-class experience, all within the park. To take someone from a Class I river and flat water paddling, all the way up to Class IV, standing 7-8 foot waves.”
The $250 million outdoor super park will feature surfing, rafting, kayaking, climbing, scuba diving, snorkeling, skateboarding, mountain biking, fly fishing, canoeing, volleyball, and boogie boarding. In addition, Waveyard will be home to a 320 room resort hotel, 150 resort villas, a 30,000 square foot conference center, a spa and wellness center, a massive sand beach, numerous restaurants, a 55,000 square foot indoor water park, 150,000 square feet of sports and entertainment retail, 30,000 square feet of office space, an amphitheater, and numerous residential communities.
Waveyards surf pool will be the largest wave pool constructed in the United States featuring over 150,000 square feet of water surface. The pool will be capable of delivering waves up to 12 feet in height, but will provide wave configurations suitable for all riders. Additionally, a beginners pool featuring padded side walls and gentle 3-4 foot waves generated every 10-12 seconds will provide entertainment for beginners.
Another primary attraction in the Waveyard will be the worlds largest self circulating white water river. Waveyard commissioned the team that developed the United States National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC, to execute a state-of-the-art facility featuring an upper start pool, three primary white water channels, a gentler beginners river, a lower finishing pool, and an incline conveyor belt system to return people to the top of the course. Current plans call for a channel system that is 2,000 to 2,500 feet longer than the Charlotte facility, with a 30 foot vertical drop, though the drop might be decreased to 24 feet before the dust settles.
Unlike the Charlotte facility, which is being built amongst a pre-existing series of mountain bike trails, Waveyard will be built from ground zero.
