Firm Plans Purchase, Expansion Of Fitchburg Hotel, Water Park
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A Wisconsin-based firm plans to expand Fitchburg's water park from 30,000 square feet to 55,000 square feet.
A national developer of indoor waterparks has entered into an agreement to purchase and expand Fitchburg's Holiday Inn and CoCo Key water park, according to documents filed with the city clerk's office.
In a special permit request filed May 14, Madison, Wis.-based Great Wolf Resorts, the parent company of 11 Great Wolf Lodges across the U.S. and Ontario, said it had entered into a purchase-and-sale agreement to acquire the waterpark and Holiday Inn.
Plans submitted with the request say the firm is seeking to redesign and expand the water park, rebrand the hotel and increase the number of its rooms from 245 to 406. The convention center would be renovated into 81 hotel rooms with new family recreation and entertainment space, the documents said. The project would more than double the current size of the water park to 55,000 square feet. What Great Wolf called the total entertainment area would increase from 35,000 square feet to 90,000 square feet.
Great Wolf said the project "will result in a family-friendly resort and is intended to provide a self-contained family vacation experience" and will include a variety of "unique, proprietary entertainment features and amenities." Great Wolf Lodges have a "Northwoods" lodge theme, according to the company, with exposed timber beams, stone fireplaces and mounted wolves. Their target customers are families with children ages 2 to 12, according to the company's most recent financial filings.
The firm projects more than 400,000 visitors at the site each year and that it will generate nearly $1.3 million annually in city lodging tax revenue and another $2.1 million in state sales and lodging taxes. It expects the site to employ 500 people after opening and said the project will create more than 250 construction and trade jobs.
A public hearing on the proposal will be at 7:30 p.m., June 18.
The news comes less than a year after Holiday Inn opened, following a $750,000 investment by its Michigan owners — Durga LLC — who purchased the site in 2011. Durga had bought the hotel and CoCo Key for $2.8 million from Sage Hospitality Group and changed the flag from a Courtyard by Marriott. In 2008, the water park was built along with a Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel being renovated into the Courtyard.
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