$900M water park resort breaks ground in Spotsylvania

A massive water park resort has broken ground in Spotsylvania County.

The 1.38 million-square-foot Spotsylvania County Kalahari Resort, located between U.S. Route 1 and Interstate 95 in Thornburg, north of Kings Dominion, is expected to offer a 907-room hotel, a 175,000-square-foot indoor waterpark featuring slides, a wave pool and surf park. Also planned are 10 acres of outdoor pools and a 90,000-square-foot adventure park with rides, a rope course, climbing walls, a dozen on-site food and beverage offerings and more than 150,000 square feet of meeting and convention space. Kalahari Resorts & Conventions expects to invest $900 million in the park, which is currently slated to open in 2026.

The Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors in 2022 approved rezoning of about 135 acres for the park as well as performance incentives and a gap loan to help cover construction, and once completed, it is expected to be the county’s largest taxpayer, according to Spotsylvania County Supervisor Kevin Marshall, who also serves as business development manager for its economic development department. According to The Free Lance-Star, county-approved tax incentives for Kalahari over 20 years are estimated at more than $185 million, with the county expected to take in $83 million in tax revenue during that time period. Spotsylvania’s cost for the gap loan would be $74.8 million over two decades, according to Northern Virginia magazine.

In May, the county approved the creation of the Matta River Community Development Authority, a tax district to raise funding for infrastructure.

In a statement, Marshall said the investment is expected to not only generate construction jobs but also add 1,400 full- and part-time jobs ranging from “entry to executive level,” while driving economic growth for the region. 

This will be the fifth African-themed resort for the Wisconsin-based Kalahari, which opened its first complex in Wisconsin Dells, a popular tourist destination, in 2000, and the first to open in Virginia. The privately owned company also operates locations in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

“Our family could not be prouder to call Spotsylvania County, Virginia, home to our fifth Kalahari resort,” Todd Nelson, owner and founder of Kalahari Resorts & Conventions, said in a statement.  “County and commonwealth officials and the Virginia people have been incredibly welcoming and supportive in helping us to make Kalahari Resort’s fifth location a reality in this beautiful state.”

In 2007, Kalahari announced plans to build a resort near the Fredericksburg Expo Center, but did not follow through due to the 2008 Great Recession.