There’s been a palpable shift with more interest in the surf park space than ever before. We’ve matured since the dreamer days a decade ago, when a rough sketch on a napkin and secured land could potentially land a deal. But the same question is raised again and again, whether in a room full of attorneys or by a billionaire bro smitten with surfing, what does it cost to build a surf park? Like most things in life, the answer is never straight and simple.
Evolving Technology and Rising Material Costs Matter
Before 2020, technology was all over the map, with, for example, no less than five foil/plow systems. That plow design was the Go-To idea (along with circular pools, but that’s another story) for the future of surf parks. Today the only plow still in use is Kelly’s and this, only after pumping millions in R&D on that magic rectangle of stoke. After the pandemic, technology companies found new ways to address wave quality and throughput. However, material costs skyrocketed, up to 30% in some markets, which adds up if you are setting down massive amounts of concrete and steel.
Why Accurate Assessment is Tricky, Part One
As far as building a wave pool, there are a variety of factors that can alter the price, including size, soil quality, pool materials, local construction costs, and much more (this is a whole new branch addressed in this podcast) But for now, let’s contrast just the cost of the pool with the surrounding amenities that brand a development and help make a surf park profitable.
To get more details on the differences in price between constructing the lagoon itself and these amenities, we asked Skip Taylor of Surf Park Management.
“The typical lagoon pools that most people are building right now, you’re gonna be in for about $30 million for the lagoon pool, $25 [million], maybe, if you can push it down a little bit, but let’s call it 30,” said Skip in a WavePoolMag podcast.
And what about the surrounding amenities that can push a development into the nine-figure range? The following are projects completed that are now stoking new surf communities. The prices (as provided by developers) reflect the total build of the development and not just the wave pool.
The Wave in Bristol and Scotland’s Lost Shore Surf Resort established UK benchmarks with build costs of £25 million ($33 million USD) and £60 million ($80 million USD) respectively. Over in Germany, O₂ SURFTOWN MUC came online for €40 million (about $50 million USD). In the United States, Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in Lemoore was developed for approximately $30 million and continues to serve as a model for high-performance wave generation and profitability, mostly due to its bespoke branding as an exclusive experience.
Auckland Surf Park is under construction in New Zealand with a reported NZ$100 million budget, while two separate iterations of the Surf London project cite figures of £50 million and £60 million. In Australia, The Break Surf & Stay, approved for Aldinga, South Australia, carries a projected cost of more than $100 million AUD.
The Cost of Surrounding Amenities
What you do with these surrounding amenities has a wide play in costs as well. URBNSURF Melbourne was built with container-style architecture, and Waco Surf used simple wood structures. The other side of this style would be the luxury apartments and the Sitio Hotel at Atlantic Park. And while Melbourne, Waco, and Virginia Beach are new surf spots added to the world’s shred-map, all have very different footprints to cater to the surfing centerpiece.
“You’re gonna have your structures and your buildings, and your infrastructure and your civil around the project, bringing everything in, and you’re gonna need to build it to about 25,000 square feet to accommodate surf operations, restaurants, retail, back-of-house, offices, all that stuff,” added Skip.
But how big you go with those surrounding buildings can quickly skyrocket the project’s cost.
In Texas, the Cannon Beach project in McKinney is pursuing approval for a $200 million surf and adventure park, again with retail and hospitality adjacent construction making up the bulk of the price tag. The surf basin at Atlantic Park in Virginia Beach is part of a $350 million entertainment district and includes hotels, apartments, a music venue and surrounding restaurants.
“So, the basic price for a pool and buildings is $50 million, probably, before you even get into land costs,” added Skip. “If you’re putting a hotel or real estate around it, and that drives it up to, you know, closer to $100 million, and then some of these projects with bigger real estate holdings, it’s getting up to be $150 to $200 million. So, those are the ranges I’m seeing right now, out there in discussion.”
One insider told WavePoolMag that it makes sense for newer large-scale residential and mixed-use developments to peel off 10% of the total project cost to construct a wave pool. And the value is staggering. At Praia da Grama in Brazil, the surrounding land value rose from US$60 per m2 to US$220 per m2 when the project was announced. And in the following 18 months, land value continued to increase until it hit US$500 per m2 according to developers.
“In all my years as a project developer, I have never seen the value of lots escalate as much as we have seen at Praia da Grama. It was beyond all our expectations,” said Oscar Segall of KSM Realty, the company behind Praia da Grama.
Does this mean we are shifting away from stand-alone turnstile wave pools and moving toward residential-only developments? The recent flurry of residential-based projects, including Austin Surf Club, Cabo Real and Buzios would indicate a new direction for the industry. But when you concider recently announced projects like Surfers Cove in Portugal which has a reported price tag of just €25 million, along with the ongoing success of bare-amenities surf parks like The Wave, it indicates that there is plenty of room for both types of developments.
Editor’s Note: Information contained in this article was obtained through original reporting and sourcing by WavePoolMag, not by AI Data-Scraping. Reproduction or republication of material should include attribution and a link to the original article.
