Northern Va. Big Deal: Safari in Spotsy

A high school marching band, a giant seafood boil and an enthusiastic crowd of about 200 people helped celebrate the Oct. 20, 2023, groundbreaking for the $900 million, 1.38 million-square-foot Kalahari Resort in Spotsylvania County.

The fifth African-themed resort from the privately owned, Wisconsin-based Kalahari Resorts & Conventions, the sprawling tourism and events destination is planned to include a 175,000-square-foot indoor water park, a 907-room hotel and 150,000-square-foot conference center. It’s slated to open in November 2026, with plans to create more than 1,000 jobs.

“This was not your typical ground-breaking where we went out and put a few shovels in the ground,” says Kevin Marshall, business development manager for Spotsylvania’s economic development department, as well as a county supervisor representing the Berkeley District. He has worked closely with Kalahari Resorts to bring the project to Virginia since June 2020, when company executives first laid eyes on the site, an old farm situated between U.S. Route 1 and Interstate 95 in Thornburg.

After examining two other options that did not make the cut, Marshall piled the Kalahari team into a truck and took them to the Thornburg site. “I said, ‘I’ve got another site for you,’” he says. “We jumped in the pickup and rode around the 140 acres.”

Kalahari Resorts has had its eye on Virginia — and the Fredericksburg region — for some time. Back in 2007, the company announced plans to build a resort near the Fredericksburg Convention Center, but the 2008 Great Recession led them to cancel construction.

This time, the project’s $900 million price tag represents a substantial increase from estimates when the company first began looking at the region. “Things have leveled off, and we are on budget,” says Travis Nelson, the company’s president. “The numbers started quite a bit lower from back when interest rates were 5 points lower and inflation was not what it is.”

The company’s model is based on a guest population that drives to its parks, with most guests traveling from within a three-hour radius, making interstate access crucial.

“We looked at some other opportunities in Georgia and Maryland and Massachusetts and a few others,” Nelson says. “Virginia was on the short list and definitely was someplace we wanted to be for a long time. [Then] we found a fantastic site in Virginia and that kind of honed it in. When you drop that [three-hour driving] hoop down on a map [of Thornburg], you encompass some pretty great areas — Washington, D.C., Richmond and a number of other places.”

Marshall says he anticipates county tax revenue to exceed $6 million the first year the park is open, and to increase with time. It’s estimated that the property will employ about 800 associates year-round, with that number climbing closer to 1,200 during busier seasons. Employment opportunities created by the resorts, which also will have 12 on-site food and beverage venues, will range from entry-level to executive, with a variety of management-level positions. There will also be part-time opportunities. 

“We have five [county] high schools and lots of 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds looking for part-time jobs — that helps [them] get that car and keep that car on the road,” Marshall notes.

At the time of the groundbreaking, the only associate who had been hired was the resort’s general manager, who is relocating from the company’s property in Sandusky, Ohio. The next scheduled hire is a director of sales, who’s expected to be brought on by spring.

“It will be a slow trickle here and there, and then it ramps up when you get inside of 12 months,” says Nelson, noting there will also be “lots and lots” of construction and related jobs generated by the project along the way.

The addition of the resort also holds the promise of bringing convention business to Spotsylvania. Before a shovel was even put in the ground, the Virginia Kalahari resort had already booked a four-day anime convention, Colossalcon, for May 2027.

“[Colossalcon] holds events at all — now five — of our resorts and often sells the resort out of overnight rooms,” says Sara Hood, a spokesperson for Kalahari. “Our Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio events see from 3,000 to 4,000 attendees, while our Texas event is still growing. We would anticipate around 1,000 people at the Virginia event.”