Great Wolf Lodge opens in Minnesota

Great Wolf Resorts has opened Great Wolf Lodge Minnesota, its 15th indoor waterpark resort.

The Minnesota lodge, in Bloomington, across Highway 77 from Mall of America, has 404 suites and 4,000 square feet of meeting space.

Its 75,000-square-foot indoor waterpark includes the Totem Towers three-story body slide; the Wolf Rider Wipeout surf simulator; and a new slide — River Canyon Run, with a movie theme that projects lights and music during the ride.

The resort also features the Great Wolf Adventure Park with a rock wall and ropes course, and a new animated projection show in the lobby called Northwoods Friends Show.

Great Wolf bought the former Radisson Hotel Bloomington and its Water Park of America in February for $39.1 million. Renovations cost $30 million. The resort held its grand opening on Tuesday.

Two more Great Wolf resorts are scheduled to open in 2018 in LaGrange, Georgia, and Gurnee, Illinois.

Great Wolf’s corporate headquarters are now in Chicago, but 230 of its nearly 7,000 employees are in Madison at the company’s offices and call center.

Great Wolf is owned by Centerbridge Partners, a New York private-equity firm.

Source:  Wisconsin State Journal