A 37-acre mixed-use park near Power and Warner
roads in Mesa, Cannon Beach will include 500,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and hotel space and a 1.8-acre surf lagoon.He's targeting the fall of 2023 to open Cannon Beach.Cole Cannon hopes guests at his Mesa surf park will be able to hit the waves within a year.While he's a native of Utah, Cannon spent about seven years in California where he learned to surf and developed a passion for it. Cannon said he's trying to capitalize on the growing popularity of surfing and limited surf park options across the country."I have six kids under the age of 11 and felt there was something missing in the East Valley, entertainment-wise," Cannon said. "So maybe selfishly, I developed the park for my family, thinking that the rest of the similarly situated families in the neighborhoods surrounding the park would also enjoy this amenity."Cannon Beach amenities and tenants Before opening the park to guests, Cannon wants the two surf features, the beach grill and 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant tenants along Power Road to all be open as guests come into Cannon Beach. Since he started developing the park, Cannon said he's added a cliff-diving lagoon to Cannon Beach. That lagoon will include a 17-foot deep pool, and a range of platforms from 6 feet up to 26 feet tall."If [guests] don't want to pay for surfing or they're not surfers — everybody's a jumper," Cannon said. "We think that will create hours of entertainment for all the teenagers and kids while the parents kick back and read a book."Cannon said he's in talks with architecture firms to design an on-site hotel. The aesthetics of the hotel, which will represent about $45 million in construction costs, will be inspired by beach towns in Southern California and Hawaii. Cannon looks to break ground on the hotel by the fourth quarter of 2023 and complete the project about a year later. He expects that hotel will include about 150 rooms across five stories and will include amenities like surf lockers."In the southeast Valley, we have a lot of great hotels, but they're typically a Holiday Inn Express, Courtyard by Marriott or Hampton Inn. This is going to be a true 4-star hotel," Cannon said.Cannon said the whole development is about a $240 million investment. Of that, Cannon said about $30 million has been spent, largely on building the infrastructure for the site. Earlier this month, indoor playground company KTR announced it would expand into a 30,000-square-foot site at the development. KTR will join other tenants committed to Cannon Beach, including Bubbakoo Burritos, Moku Hawaiian Grill, Wow Wow Hawaiian Lemonade, Ananda Salon, as well as a nail salon, a booze and brunch, and a Korean barbecue concept. Cannon said he's also looking to bring a fitness concept to the development as well. The park has been under construction since the summer of 2021. The "snags" in getting ready to open the park, Cannon said, have been with the development of its wave technology. That includes implementing the hydraulics, power, wave board and shape of the walls. Cannon said he's worked with Blue Wave Construction and Adaptive Architects to build and design the park, respectively.
The water from the lagoon will be filtered, nonpotable well water, which will be chlorinated like a regular pool and will be recirculated every eight hours, similar to a public pool, Cannon Beach officials previously told the Business Journal.While construction is ongoing at Cannon Beach, Cannon is looking ahead to bring a couple of similar developments to the Valley. While he hasn't secured the deals yet, Cannon said he has offers pending on two separate parcels in Glendale and Scottsdale."It's going to be a lot easier the second time," Cannon said with a laugh.Cannon Beach is one of several water attractions in the works in the Valley. VAI Global Development plans to open a $1 billion resort and entertainment complex in Glendale in late 2023. The 60-acre resort will include the soon-to-be largest hotel in Arizona with 1,200 rooms, a 360-degree concert stage, a dozen restaurants, including Konos Island, which is a 52,000-square-foot "party island" that will feature a DJ booth, cabanas, Mediterranean-inspired cuisine or an aerial bar that can take guests 130 feet in the air.In addition, Erin La Grassa of Mesa-based PHX Surf LLC is developing a 71-acre park with two, 5-acre surf lagoons, a water park and a surf center and academy on a vacant site bound by Loma and Green roads and State Route 238 and Garvey Avenue in Maricopa."I'm excited about the other parks because the more surfers, the better for me. We're all a bunch of desert rats who are going to be learning to surf for the first time," Cannon said. "If you're a skier, maybe one day you'll hit Flagstaff, another day you'll hit Telluride or Park City. It's not like you say to yourself one is superior to another, it's just a different experience. The more people who learn how to surf I think tis only going to help each other's business grow."
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