The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community will consider a permit that could allow Great Wolf Lodge to expand its Arizona hotel with a proposed six-story tower.
Great Wolf Lodge staff is in an "early exploratory phase" for the expansion. They told community leaders that the expansion could help the hotel serve a growing need as family travel in the United States evolves.
The permit request passed the Land Management Board last month and the Community Council will hold a community hearing on the proposed expansion at its Aug. 19 meeting.
Great Wolf Lodge's Arizona location, first opened in 2019, is famous for its expansive indoor water park. Its anchor attraction is Talking Stick Treehouse, a treehouse complex connected to water slides and loaded with a bucket on the top that dumps water on all in its path when triggered by a bell.
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Every year on Aug. 4, the hotel hosts a one-day only 8/4 sale, honoring the constant 84-degree temperatures at its water parks by offering room rates as low as $84.
Here's what travelers should know about the hotel's upcoming expansion.
What will Great Wolf Lodge Arizona's expansion include?
Great Wolf Lodge Arizona plans to add a new six-story tower that contain 24 new three-bedroom suites.
Documents show the new tower would be built adjacent to the right side of the existing hotel building.
"We’re always looking for opportunities to bring the Great Wolf Lodge experience to more families," Great Wolf Lodge staff said in a statement provided to The Arizona Republic. "We’re in a very early exploratory phase for a potential expansion of our Arizona resort. Part of our exploratory process includes working with local officials to secure needed entitlements."
Why does Great Wolf Lodge want to expand in Arizona?
Great Wolf Lodge wants to build more spacious accommodations for large family groups, which has become "an increasingly large portion" of its customer base, community staff said in a Land Management Board presentation.
Rooms in the existing hotel building aren't big enough to adequately accommodate large families. The hotel wasn't built with large family groups in mind, but the increasing interest from such groups came because of "changing market demands and guest preferences that were not anticipated when the resort was originally constructed."
If the expansion happens, three-bedroom suites would be a new accommodation option for guests at Great Wolf Lodge's Arizona hotel. The existing hotel has no three-bedroom suites, Great Wolf Lodge spokesman Jason Lasecki said.
Large family group travel has shown "strong" demand in recent years, according to the Family Travel Association and New York University's U.S. Family Travel Survey.
The survey found about 57% of grandparents were planning multi-generational travel in 2025, 48% of families were planning travel with extended family such as aunts and uncles and 42% were planning travel with non-relatives such as friends and other families. Those figures are increases from a previous survey from 2023.
Was Great Wolf Lodge Arizona's expansion approved?
Great Wolf Lodge's request for a dimensional variance on its Arizona property, which would allow the six-story tower's development to move forward, was approved by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community's Land Management Board on July 27.
The Community Council will hold a community hearing on the project at an Aug. 19 meeting.
When will Great Wolf Lodge Arizona expansion debut?
An estimated opening date for the six-story tower is not yet known.
"While we feel there’s opportunity to expand our resort in Talking Stick, we’re still in the early stages of our evaluation process and therefore it would be premature to comment further on this potential project," Great Wolf Lodge staff told The Republic.
