After Eyeing at Brentwood, Great Wolf Lodge Likely Headed to Manteca

The City of Brentwood appears out of the running for the long-rumored Great Wolf Lodge after the Manteca City Council unanimously approved a deal to bring the resort go the City.

The City of Brentwood announced in August of 2016 that Great Wolf was looking at Brentwood and in January of 2017 announced it entered into an Exclusive Negotiations Agreement between the City and Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.

During the process, the City of Brentwood touted the projects economic opportunity which includes:

• 800 permanent jobs
• Over $6 million in initial revenues.
• Additional opportunity for tourism
• Over a half a million visitors
• $5 million to be spent annually by Great Wolf Resorts on marketing
• In addition to the direct revenue opportunities there are potentially significant economic advantages as this could become a catalyst project for the development of Priority Area 1.

The deal, however, was never closed as Great Wolf Resorts decided to look at Gilroy before settling back on Manteca, a city which they had been negotiating with for the past 7-yaers.

Brentwood City Manager Gus Vina said it came down to land.

“Basically Manteca had free land for them and we did not,” said Vina. “City was certainly interested but not desperate, the deal would need to be in the interest of our community.  If it ends up not working in Manteca I would not be surprised if they come back to talk to us.  Time will tell.”

According to the City of Manteca, the project will be located at the eastern terminus of Daniels Street, bounded by the future extension of Daniel Street to the north, State Route 120 to the south and Costco to the east. The first phase of the project will include a 510,000 square foot facility consisting of: a 500 room 310,000 square foot hotel, 51,000 square foot Family Entertainment Center and Lobby, 12,000 square foot of meeting rooms, 16,000 square foot restaurant/food court, and a 100,000 square foot indoor water park.

The City has been working more than seven years to secure a hotel/water park on the site and has worked diligently to provide a site for this type of use that was ready for development.

“Our goal has been to have a shovel-ready piece of property available for a hotel/water park,” Mayor Stephen DeBrum said. “We believe, and we are seeing, that our site is the best-suited and most-readily available location in Northern California.”

And Great Wolf Lodge agrees. Great Wolf identified Manteca as their preferred location due the readiness of the site, its location, the City’s labor force, and proximity to other community and visitor attractions, such as Big League Dreams.

Expected to bring in nearly 500,000 visitors throughout the year, the Lodge will generate significant new tax revenues which will go into the City’s General Fund to pay for roads, police and fire services, city parks, recreational amenities, and other community benefits.

Additionally, the project will create an estimated 1,500 construction jobs and an estimated 500 permanent resort jobs providing nearly $20 million per year of payroll.

“This project has been a long time in the making, and the actions taken by the Planning Commission and City Council in the next month will make this project a reality.” DeBrum said