National Geographic defines an oasis as an area made fertile by a source of freshwater in an otherwise dry and arid region.
Just add chlorine, and you’ve got PHX Surf — fertile grounds for a new kind of economic development in Maricopa.
It’s been months since much has been said about the 34-acre, $100 million waterpark proposed at the southwest corner of State Route 238 and Loma Road on Maricopa’s west side.
And by what little chatter there has been, the conversation shifted tone.
PHX Surf burst onto the scene three years ago with promises to be a blown-up version of Golfland Sunsplash in Mesa or Oasis Water Park in Phoenix with beaucoup water slides, lazy rivers and high-decibel entertainment.
Instead, PHX Surf CEO Erin LaGrassa now envisions creating an oasis in the desert, focusing on wellness and “barefoot luxury” centered around surfing.
“We are focusing on harmonizing surf with wellness by creating a staycation type of venue,” LaGrassa said. “We want to build this oasis in the desert and using surfing and riding the wave as an analogy for all our programming.”
Ground could break next month
If there’s anything LaGrassa knows, she said, it’s that Maricopans have had their patience constantly tested with development projects falling through over the years.
Apologizing for the changes and delays, she said: “Thanks for keeping the faith. It is coming.”
Planning & Zoning Manager Rick Williams hinted to reporters the Nov. 25 agenda would feature an item of unique interest, though he did not elaborate.
The city council won’t meet until the following week, Dec. 3. Assuming everything is in lockstep, it’s possible a groundbreaking could take place in mid-December, officials said.
LaGrassa’s excitement as the park inches closer to fruition is palpable.
“We just don’t want to over promise and under deliver,” she said. “Nobody’s more excited about getting this up and running than us. It’s been a crazy roller coaster, but I will be very excited when we literally have a shovel in the ground.”
Back to the drawing board
In the meantime, would-be surfers can fawn over newly released images that reveal a vastly different waterpark than the one introduced in 2021.
A glance at the latest renderings and preliminary site plans makes a few things clear: Construction will occur in two phases, many previously touted features are missing and everything has taken on curvy, organic shapes.
“A lot of wave pools look like an old-school water slide park,” Fernandez said. “We are looking at building a wellness oasis.”
That means focusing on design choices that flow smoothly without jutting angles and incorporating natural earth tones with a “modern, elevated design aesthetic,” he said.
LaGrassa said these design choices would help the park to stand out from the dozens of other waterparks in the Phoenix metro.
“Those rectangular shapes are something you would find at any waterpark and it’s less natural,” she said. “We really want you to feel like you’re in an oasis, so having this lagoon shaped like sunglasses gives us more beachfront.”
The lagoon and villas
One of the most notable design changes is the surf lagoon, which transformed from two rectangular wave pools to something that resembles a common accessory found in both the desert and beach — sunglasses.
The lagoon was designed by Vancouver-based surf park design firm Endless Surf, and Maricopa isn’t the first place that will follow this blueprint.
Landlocked Munich sits 180 miles from the Adriatic Sea and 420 miles from the shore of the North Sea in one of Europe’s most inland cities. It’s also now home to Surftown, Germany’s first surf park which opened in August.
Surftown’s lagoon is nearly 600 feet long and the two bays allow for different skill levels to surf at the same time.
PHX Surf said the German version is a smaller scale with far fewer amenities — just a restaurant and one gift shop are located onsite.
Maricopa, duplicating the sunglass-shaped Surftown wave pool, will scatter smaller pools around the property, along with multiple dining and shopping venues. But occupying the most acreage are the rounded villas for overnight guests.
Austin, Texas-based ICON Technologies designed and will construct the earthy villas using 3D printing. The company says this helps “lower the cost and increase the speed and quality of construction.”
LaGrassa said she was excited after visiting one of ICON’s buildings.
“It’s very, very unique,” she said. “If you’ve ever been in like an adobe house, it kind of feels like that. It’s very natural and earthy and there literally are no straight walls, which we really liked about their design.”
Copanomics
The real test will come when the park welcomes its first visitors and begins collecting those sweet, sweet tourism dollars.
Luis Cordova is an economist and vice president of Tempe-based Rounds Consulting. He said an attraction like PHX Surf has a lot of potential for cities like Maricopa.
“Cities should be looking for these kinds of amenities because it makes the city more attractive to live in and has significant tax revenue benefits,” he said. “You’re importing dollars from outside the area and that has a ripple effect.”
Whatever tourism dollars are spent in the city at PHX Surf translates to money that is re-spent throughout the community,” Cordova said. This generates tax revenue that “either lessens the burden on the community’s residents or creates additional tax revenues that they can use to expand other essential services.”
Maintaining the park’s success and relevance over the years after it opens is crucial and Cordova said that means expanding other tourism options.
“You want to attract hotels and other similar activities to the area so people don’t go for just one day,” he said. “There should be multiple things to do so they spend more time there, which means more money spent.”
And … the traffic
For many locals, the question that looms over any development of this scale is traffic — and how their commute up and down State Route 347 would be affected.
A review of the initial project narrative submitted and approved in 2022 showed the park anticipated seeing an average capacity of 840 people onsite, coming in 455 vehicles.
However, this number could be lower now with fewer amenities ready in the first phase of construction.
A new traffic study has not been completed.
The narrative did not specify how many of these 455 vehicles were predicted to be driven by nonresidents traveling on SR 347.
The Arizona Department of Transportation’s 2023 traffic report showed more than 52,000 vehicles travel the highway daily between Cobblestone Farms Drive and Riggs Road.
PHX Surf’s estimate equates to an additional 0.8% of traffic on SR 347, assuming it’s just nonresidents traveling to and from the attraction. How much of an impact would that have on commuters?
Cordova said it may be negligible, a welcome opinion for most in the city.
“It depends on the number of people traveling, how big the facility is and how many people are traveling,” he said. “If visitors are getting there at different hours, then it shouldn’t have too much of an impact.”
However, because the highway tends to back up badly daily during rush hours and crashes — there’s one major crash every other day on SR 347 on average, according to ADOT — Cordova admitted it’s important for city and state officials to “be more focused on transportation improvements” to prevent it from becoming an issue for the city’s aspiring tourism.
But that’s a problem for later. Why worry now? It’s not the surfer way, dude.
