Developers Riding The Surf Park Wave With Resorts, Retail And Residences

Surf parks are making waves.

These indoor evolutions of the wave pools and water parks that have long dotted American suburbs feature surfable waves that can be adjusted for skill levels from beginner to expert and are spreading at an accelerating clip.

The capital-intensive projects are increasingly serving as destinations for locals and tourists, and their developers are responding by creating mixed-use hubs anchored by surf parks.

“When you spread that cost across a larger development, you can pay for the power, you can pay for the water, you can pay for the infrastructure, which is a very large entry cost into just building a lagoon,” DavisReed Construction Executive Vice President Dan Dalry said during Bisnow's Surf Park Real Estate Conference on July 23.

Twenty-six surf parks were developed worldwide between 2015 and 2025, but that number is expected to double to 50 by the end of next year. The industry was valued at $4B last year, according to trade association Surf Park Central.

“This is almost like a gold rush, in a way,” said Surf Loch CEO Tom Lochtefeld, who got his start as the co-developer of San Gabriel Valley waterpark Raging Waters. 

With bigger, broader audiences in mind, many of these parks are taking a mixed-use approach to their design, focusing not only on the quality of the surf but on surrounding uses like food, beverage and hospitality. 

Many of the newer locations coming to market approach the park from a mixed-use perspective, not only to get visitors to linger but to benefit the bottom line. 

The Palm Springs Surf Club, which opened in January 2024, offers wave pool-adjacent luxury cabanas with private dip pools, a living room-like seating area with a TV and a personal server, and three bar and restaurant options on-site. A second phase will bring a 139-key hotel and 57 private villas to the development. 

In a master-planned development called eTown Jacksonville, Florida, surf park developer Aventuur is expected to break ground this year on a 45-acre project that will combine a surf academy with a hotel and retail and event space.  

It’s expected to open in 2028, Aventuur told Surfer Magazine this year.  

And in Texas, a development around Waco Surf is expected to have a 450-acre residential community with 3D-printed homes and townhomes starting at $1.6M, hiking trails and an exclusive wave pool. 

Wave pools as a concept are not new, but the technology is evolving rapidly, panelists told the audience at the Irvine Marriott. The quality of the waves they’re able to produce is constantly improving, thanks to advances in mechanical systems. The waves can be dialed in for beginners or cranked up for veteran surfers.

That variation is key because it makes these parks a place that surfers can go with other similarly skilled surfers and a place where they can go with their families.

“You’ve got to appeal to those families and the kids and the moms,” Lochtefeld said. “All of that is just so critical to how these things aren't niche-driven.”

Building up that broad appeal is the key to long-term success, Meriweather partner Dave Likins said, referencing his time as chief operating officer at Waco Surf in Texas. 

“In the five years I was there, we had zero beginner lessons, zero beginner wave sessions. It was all advanced and some intermediate,” Likins said. “By the time we were done, it was almost 50% intermediate and beginner, because that was the only way to build the business, to get the top of the funnel.”

These parks are particularly popular in the Southern California desert. They’re about 100 miles from the nearest beach and are able to attract visitors in the summertime, when hot temperatures can slow the flow of tourists.

But despite their attraction, building a massive wave pool in the middle of the desert comes with a lot of questions from cities and residents about water. 

“At Dsrt Surf, we did a lot to show them what the actual water use was,” AO partner Bruce Greenfield said. “We did a trade-off program on the adjacent golf course. We took out lawn area and replaced it with drought-tolerant planting, so that as a net it doesn't really use any water based on what was replaced.” 

The park will use 23.8 million gallons of drinking water a year from the area, which it will offset by replacing some of the grass on an adjacent golf course with drought-tolerant landscaping, Bloomberg reported in 2024. 

“You might ask, ‘All this great surf and this giant lagoon, is that irresponsible?’” Doug Sheres, a founding partner at Dsrt Surf’s developer, Beach Street, told Bloomberg. 

“And the answer is, well, it’s really not as irresponsible as you might think.”