Mashantucket — Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket, the $300 million indoor waterpark resort scheduled to open in May, will employ some 500 full- and part-time employees, including many high school students and recent high school graduates, Great Wolf Resorts executives said Tuesday.
Henry Tessman, the resort’s general manager, said about 50% of the workforce is likely to be under 20 years of age.
Media and guests wearing hard hats toured the facility Tuesday, where construction continues on a 13-acre site adjacent to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe’s Foxwoods Resort Casino. Some of the resort’s 549 guest rooms, and portions of its 92,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, 61,000-square-foot Adventure Park and other areas were on display. Seemingly on cue, a huge “tipping bucket” atop the waterpark’s twisting chutes sent hundreds of gallons of water crashing down on the surface below.
Great Resorts announced in November it had moved up the lodge’s planned opening from June 15 to May 23, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.
Tessman, who previously managed the Great Wolf Lodge in Fitchburg, Mass., Great Wolf’s only other resort in New England, said much of the executive-level hiring for the Mashantucket resort has been completed. Great Wolf will start advertising other positions next month and begin hosting job fairs in March, he said.
“We’ll be getting the word out in local schools and colleges,” he said. “We’re very flexible about scheduling around school and sports activities.”
Brad Weissman, Great Wolf regional vice president, said some employees at the company’s Fitchburg resort will be transferred to Mashantucket, at least initially, but that most workers will be hired locally. Due to the presence of Foxwoods and Mystic, the area is home to a lot of “hospitality talent,” he said.
Weissman said Great Wolf expects the new lodge to draw 500,000 visitors annually, with most of them driving from one to four hours from markets around Hartford, Providence, Boston and New York. He said Great Wolf’s lodges — Mashantucket is its 23rd — succeed because they’re “close, convenient and carefree.”
“Everything is under one roof,” he said. “And visits require very little advance planning. … We keep it simple.”
Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket will be the 11th resort Great Wolf has opened since the Fitchburg resort debuted in 2014.
Mashantucket officials, including Rodney Butler, the tribal chairman, other tribal councilors and Jason Guyot, Foxwoods’ president and chief executive officer, were on hand at Tuesday’s event.
“It’s the talk of the town,” Guyot, who lives in Stonington, said of the resort. “I can’t go anywhere without being asked when it’s going to open and how you get reservations.”
He said he believes Great Wolf’s attendance is likely to be closer to 1 million annually than 500,000, and will complement the 10 million to 12 million visitors a year Foxwoods and the Tanger Outlets at the casino attract.
“There will be some cross-marketing opportunities, which we’re talking about,” Guyot said. “We’ve always said we’re not just a casino. We’ve got more options than ever now. This is a dynamic destination, one that can’t be duplicated.”
b.hallenbeck@theday.com