Moderators: Coyote, nebugeater, Brad, Omaha Cowboy, BRoss
Iowa's first resort park, in the works for more than 30 years, is finally off the drawing board.
In Moravia, Gov. Tom Vilsack signed into law Wednesday a measure that provides $28 million in state financing for Honey Creek Resort Park near Rathbun Lake in southern Iowa.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources announced that Central Group Companies has been selected to manage the Honey Creek Resort, which is scheduled to open in summer 2008 at Rathbun Lake in south-central Iowa. . . .
Central Group Companies will oversee lodge management, the aquatic center, convention center, golf course and restaurant.
The company has been developing and managing resorts for 17 years. Its resorts include the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev., Cabela's resorts in Owatonna, Minn., Prairie du Chein Wis., and Sidney, Neb.; and water parks in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas and Montana.
Bob Pace, Central Group Companies president and CEO, called the Honey Creek Resort a unique destination resort.
The resort complex will be located across Rathbun Lake from Honey Creek State Park. The resort will include a 105-room lodge, a 300-person convention center, restaurant, lounge, indoor aquatic center, 18-hole championship golf course, spa, beach, boat ramp, boat docking facilities and hiking trails. . . .
A Wisconsin firm plans to build a $90 million shopping and entertainment complex next to Rathbun Lake and Honey Creek Resort State Park in southern Iowa.
The 165-acre development by Bentley Management Group of Milwaukee builds on the firm’s experience in the Wisconsin Dells and other locations. . . .
The Bentley development calls for shops, a sports activity center, cabins and condominiums.
Construction will start this summer and take five years to complete. The site is along the county road, J18, that leads from Iowa Highway 5 to Honey Creek.
“The ability to attract a development of this size so soon after completion of the Honey Creek project is confirmation that the Honey Creek resort is in the right place at the right time,” said Richard Leopold, director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
“We have always been confident that the Honey Creek resort would be able to attract additional development to the area, but to attract a project of this size less than a yea r after the resort has been in operation exceeds our expectations,” Leopold said. . . .
