'World's largest surfing park': Fort Pierce OKs early stages of $595 million Wavegarden

FORT PIERCE — Work could be under way here by the end of the year on one of the city's most anticipated projects, the world's largest surfing park. 

The City Commission Tuesday gave unanimous first approval for the first phase of the Wavegarden, part of the 200-acre Willow Lakes Resort Village community, 10050 W. Midway Road. 

A final vote is expected next month, according to city officials. 

"This is just a pivotal project in the city of Fort Pierce," said Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson. "... There's going to be a tourism component that's going to be an immediate, positive impact within the entire Treasure Coast." 

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Phase 1A of the $595 million project would include: 

A simulated surfing park  28 vacation rentals A 9,882-square-foot maintenance building 160-190 parking spaces

A 51,835-sqaure-foot entertainment-and-retail hub, designed to look like a wave, may have space for surf and watersport shops, changing rooms, surf school, food and beverage outlets, a brewery, an outdoor terrace with a bar and an amphitheater, according to city documents.

Construction of the first phase, including infrastructure, is expected to take 18 months and costs roughly $60 million, said Willow Lakes Manager Chad Labonte. 

The next phase is expected to include two hotels and more retail space, according to city documents. 

Commissioners praised the project emphasizing how the only surfing park in the state would be in their own backyard, creating thousand of jobs and generating millions in tax revenue and tourism dollars. 

"I've always said one of my goals was to to provide the opportunity for people who are residents of St. Lucie County and Fort Pierce to go from job to careers," said newly elected Commissioner Arnold Gaines. "And a project like this gives them that chance."  

Willow Lakes is expected to create about 3,400 construction jobs and nearly 1,900 ongoing jobs annually, according to an analysis by the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County. 

The surfing center itself, "Surfworks Resorts," is 9½ acres and could have an annual  $15.6 million economic impact annually, according to the report. 

Project overview

The development features a massive swimming pool-like area that creates up to 1,000 waves an hour and can accommodate around 100 surfers at a time, according to a promotional video. Waves are of varying shapes and for a range of surfer expertise. 

Overall, the project would comprise 600 hotel rooms; 150 townhomes; 150 single-family homes; 700 multi-family homes; and 650,000 square feet of commercial space, which could include offices, a shopping center, entertainment, restaurants, convenience store and pharmacy, records show. 

The proposal also includes plans for a TopGolf entertainment venue, rock-climbing wall and cliff-diving area.

18 years in the making

Developers have owned the land since 2004, but the Great Depression delayed plans.

That changed in September 2020 when Fort pierce city commissioners unanimously approved the first set of sweeping zoning changes to clear the way for the project west of Interstate 95. 

"The landowner has been around here for a long time from what I remember, waiting to bring this property into some kind of a development, and here we are tonight," Johnson said. "It's very exciting. There's a lot of opportunity here and a good phased approach to it." 

Wavegarden has surf parks in Brazil, Switzerland, South Korea, Australia, England and Wales, according to its website. Four more are under construction in California, Brazil, Scotland and Australia. It also has more than 46 projects in development across five continents.

As of July, there were 19 public wave pools around the world, according to Wave Pool Magazine.

Olivia McKelvey is TCPalm's watchdog reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 772-521-4380 and on Twitter @olivia_mckelvey. 

Original author: McKelvey