Great Wolf Lodge breaks ground on first Houston family resort in Webster

The city of Webster hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the first Great Wolf Lodge in the Houston metro area Sept. 22.

The resort, hotel and indoor waterpark will be the 22nd location in North America and the second in Texas, the first being in Grapevine outside the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, which opened in 2007.

The facility will include a 95,000-square-foot indoor water park, a 58,000-square-foot family entertainment center, several dining options, family-friendly suites and 11,000 square feet of conference space. The resort will be the first “generation 4” resort from the company, according to Great Wolf Lodge CEO Murray Hennessy.

“As we go through time, we learn a lot. What works, what doesn't. What's the most popular slide, what's the most popular attraction? What food and beverage really works? And then we put the latest and greatest of all those things in the latest generation,” Hennessy said.

Construction of the new resort and water park will require about 600 construction and trade workers, and when it opens in mid- to late 2024, it will look to fill about 500 full- and part-time jobs.

Great Wolf Lodge will be located behind the American Furniture Warehouse at 21501 Gulf Freeway, adjacent to Webster’s upcoming Flyway destination development project. The resort is not officially part of the Flyway development but will act as an anchor for businesses, Hennessy said.

“Great Wolf Lodge will be a catalyst for recruitment and business activity for our existing restaurants and hotels,” said Betsy Giusto, Webster’s Economic Development director. “It’s the hospitality anchor for Flyway.”