No more kids splashing in the waters of the Waves Resort Corpus Christi with Schlitterbahn Water Park. The water park and resort will be demolished to make way for new development. Courtesy photo
A wrecking ball is headed for Waves Resort Corpus Christi, including the Schlitterbahn-branded waterpark and 90-room hotel. Diamond Beach Holdings LLC, which purchased the property after the waterpark went bankrupt in 2018, announced it would be demolishing all structures on the property to make way for new development.
The “current structure and waterpark must come down to move forward,” the company told reporters in a statement.
Diamond Beach Holdings further stated it planned to completely rethink what kind of development would best complement the $18 million Park Road 22 bridge being built by the city of Corpus Christi.
A $2.3 million canal, which is owned in partnership by Diamond Beach Holdings and Padre Island Holdings, was completed last fall and will run under the new bridge, eventually connecting Lake Padre to the east of Park Road 22 with the Padre Isles canal system to the west of the road.
Schlitterbahn first opened in April 2016 after almost two years of on-again/off-again announcements about “soft” and grand openings.
Two years later, Diamond Beach took over, investing about $15 million in the property. It purchased Schlitterbahn from Upper Padre Partners LP, which defaulted on a 2015 loan from IBC Bankers for $16 million. The new owners added an outdoor theater, a performance stage, and 30,000 square-feet of indoor/outdoor event space. It also invested in overall upgrades to the entire property.
The resort closed its doors last May in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
