(Arnolds Park)– Some major improvements are in the works for many of the amenities at Bridges Bay Resort on the east edge of Arnolds Park.
Jon Broek of Equity Homes of Sioux Falls, which built and designed the facility, tells KUOO news most of the improvements involve the outdoor pool area…
“We added a couple of big high speed slides out there and some more lily pads, a jacuzi, you know, swim-up bars, probably four times bigger than it was. We’re going to do a full court volleyball court in the water, kind of separate it you know so people can, you know, we get a lot of groups so, families and just other groups, so you know, we think we need to have, you know, some water games they can play and take a little pressure off the lake. You know we’ve got a lot of people there that are looking for things to do that might not have a boat so. We’ve got a full court basketball court in the water also, a little waterfall, like a little waterfall cave type of thing. And then we did an outdoor jacuzi which we’re going to keep open year-round which is a little bigger than twice the size of our indoor jacuzi, so that’s going to be kind of nice for our winter guests so they can go outside in the winter and sit in the jacuzi similar to a ski resort and that type of thing.”
Broek says work on the outdoor pool project is already underway…
“We tore out the old pool already so. We’re trying to get the pool sprayed, poured, as much as we can this fall, you know, praying for a long, long fall and a short winter. You know we’d like to have it opened and completed by Memorial Day, that’s the goal of the outdoor pool. The indoor items, the additions and that, you know we’re hoping to have those done by Christmas if possible.”
The project also includes a new arcade that’s nearly 2,000 square feet in size along with party rooms and a mezzanine in the indoor water park.
He says the overall project represents roughly a two million dollar investment…
“The resort’s grown and the demand is getting stronger and stronger every year so it’s just something that needs to happen and you know we’re looking for a really good summer next year and I think for all the guests and owners there it’s a huge deal because not everybody has a boat and not everyone wants to be on the water every day all day, so you know that pool, our outdoor pool, and this year, you know I monitored it a lot more than normal and it was uncomfortably busy, so it needs to broaden out a little bit.”
When it’s all said and done, Broek says the new outdoor pool will have about four to five times the water volume of what they had previously.
Broek says the expansion project had originally been planned for the 2021 season but got moved up because of the high demand.
