Massive Resort Planned for LaGrange (Atlanta, Columbus: hotel, school, outlet mall)

[Columbus1984]

The Hundreds of jobs and thousands of tourists may be heading to Troup County soon. The world's largest operator of indoor water parks, Great Wolf Lodge, wants to build a $170 million resort right off I-85 near LaGrange.

Great Wolf Lodge wants to open a resort with 400 rooms and two acres of indoor water parks. It would create 500 jobs and bring 500,000 visitors annually.

The expected location is 45 acres near the Whitesville Road exit, that's exit 13, off of I-85. Also, part of this proposed plan, a 25,000 square foot convention center that would be paid for with a hotel-motel tax.

There are plans to build retail lots around the water park, including an outlet mall. Great Wolf first wanted to build in Peachtree City, but city leaders said no.

Just last night, the Troup County School Board gave it's stamp of approval. The city council already gave it's approval earlier this week. The county commission is expected to approve this next week.

Now the state needs to approve a tourism and development grant. If all goes as planned, Great Wolf Resort will open around Thanksgiving of 2017.

Great Wolf Lodges are all over the country. The nearest one of us is in Charlotte, North Carolina.

[Airforceguy]

This will be huge for the area, not only will this bring jobs; it will certainly make LaGrange a regional tourist destination. I also like the fact that an outlet mall is being included in the plans. I know one was proposed for LaGrange prior to the recession, hopefully this mall will have some retailers that are new to the region.

[tricky1]

Seems odd they would build it in a area with virtually no tourism. Every Great wolf lodge is
in a high tourist area, which is why they wanted to build in Peachtree City.But city council voted
5-0 not to allow them there. Locals(Lagrange) could not support the lodge, so people would have to be willing to travel
to a town with 1 attraction, aimed at younger kids, with a $200+ a night room.

400 room hotel hardley massive, but even so 500,000 vistors a year would mean the hotel would have
to be completely booked every day of the year with 3 to a room.
But hey, Calloway Gardens has been around for a long time and their main attraction is the woods

[amyers3]

I wouldn't of picked LaGrange, but it does seem to help Great Wolf Lodge break into the south. Their closest location is in Charlotte, NC. They would help bring people from all of Georgia, Alabama and Florida to enjoy this attraction. It would of been great if Phenix City could of gotten this - of course Columbus would of NEVER gotten this because of I-185... aka world's largest cul de sac

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by tricky1

Seems odd they would build it in a area with virtually no tourism. Every Great wolf lodge is
in a high tourist area, which is why they wanted to build in Peachtree City.But city council voted
5-0 not to allow them there. Locals(Lagrange) could not support the lodge, so people would have to be willing to travel
to a town with 1 attraction, aimed at younger kids, with a $200+ a night room.

400 room hotel hardley massive, but even so 500,000 vistors a year would mean the hotel would have
to be completely booked every day of the year with 3 to a room.
But hey, Calloway Gardens has been around for a long time and their main attraction is the woods

You raise good points. Great Wolf's over-inflated estimates of the financial impact (many of those 500 jobs will be part-time and low-wage) as well as the "half million annual visitors" was one of the deal-killers in Peachtree City. Good for LaGrange and Troup County, but this is an odd fit IMO.

[columbusgametro]

I hope this happens because it will really bring the park closer too columbus. Instead of us having too drive all the way too atlanta too go too the atlanta white water park we can go here instead. And plus this will spur development off i85 in lagrange and hope it will spur a little toward i185 toward columbus.

[Newsboy]

What's the attraction of an INDOOR water park in a region where it's warm enough six months of the year to go to an OUTDOOR water park?!

Great Wolf's resorts are basically Chuck E Cheese with splash pools and tube slides.

[DWColumbus]

This is awesome news for the area and something I'm excited to hear about. I've seen the one in Charlotte but I haven't actually been inside. The area has been in need of a water park since the one in Auburn closed several years ago.

I doubt the park with compare to White Water in Atlanta, but it does have the advantage for Columbus of being right down the road, and of course you can't go to White Water in the middle of the winter.

Is currently Charlotte the closest indoor water?

[columbusgametro]

Oh I thought this great wolf lodge was going to be a major water park didn't know it was going to be a step down from white water atlanta. if so then why did they choose lagrange and not columbus. Columbus could have easily supported this indoor kiddie park and it would have made great business because Columbus has improved over the past years and it is a tourism city. it's so odd how everybody overlooks columbus. This is still great news for lagrange because it will include an outlet mall. I truely believe if columbus would have gotten full interstate access it would be a lot larger than it is now and probably would have been the size of greensboro north carolina. But columbus was never put on an full interstate system and columbus has 500 fortune companies.

[DWColumbus]

Originally Posted by columbusgametro

Oh I thought this great wolf lodge was going to be a major water park didn't know it was going to be a step down from white water atlanta. if so then why did they choose lagrange and not columbus. Columbus could have easily supported this indoor kiddie park and it would have made great business because Columbus has improved over the past years and it is a tourism city. it's so odd how everybody overlooks columbus. This is still great news for lagrange because it will include an outlet mall. I truely believe if columbus would have gotten full interstate access it would be a lot larger than it is now and probably would have been the size of greensboro north carolina. But columbus was never put on an full interstate system and columbus has 500 fortune companies.

They are also trying to make it easily accessible to the Atlanta market so I'm pretty sure they were looking for a location along one of the interstates that run through Atlanta. They probably also didn't want to place it too far outside the Atlanta area. I think the good thing about it being here is that it is at good midway point between Atlanta and Columbus being fairly accessible to Columbus and much of the Atlanta area as well.