Construction begins on CT’s first Great Wolf Lodge resort

Groundbreaking for first Great Wolf Lodge in CT
Published: Feb. 1, 2023 at 3:51 PM EST
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(WFSB) - Construction has started on Great Wolf Lodge’s first Connecticut location.

Leaders broke ground Wednesday on the east side of Foxwoods where the resort will soon open.

“You understand us as a people and our culture,” Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council Chairman Rodney Butler said.

This is a project 20 years in the making. Conversations between Great Wolf and Mashantucket first began in the early 2000s to bring a resort to eastern Connecticut. However, the 2008 economic crash put a quick end to that.

“It’s been a long and windy road as they say,” Butler said.

The 91,000 square foot resort is best known for its indoor water park.

“Foxwoods and now Great Wolf, this is becoming a destination,” Governor Ned Lamont said. “This is where people want to be not just overnight, not just for a show, but for a week for a whole family.”

State and Mashantucket leaders expect Great Wolf to draw crowds from not just New England but the entire northeast.

“We’ve had two or three of the busiest tourism years in the history of the state over the last few years, and they’re complicated years,” Lamont said. “I think a lot of folks are rediscovering what they love about Connecticut, what they love about the great outdoors and I believe that Foxwoods and Great Wolf are now a big part of that.”

About 500 new, permanent jobs will come as a result of the resort. In the meantime, roughly 400 construction workers will create the buildings to welcome families from across the region for years to come.

“It’s all about families coming here, having a good time and really just enjoying themselves and forgetting everything else,” Steven Jacobsen with Great Wolf Lodge said.

The resort is expected to open in the spring of 2025.