GARLAND, Texas — Read this story and more North Texas business news from our partners at the Dallas Business Journal
Surf & Swim, a city-owned water park in Garland that's delighted residents for four decades, is getting a complete makeover.
The Fain Group was awarded a $25 million contract on July 16 by Garland City Council to demolish the current park and build a new one.
Surf & Swim is closed for the 2024 season. The project is still in the contract stage and construction has not yet started, said Larry Frazier, president of The Fain Group.
However, construction could begin at the end of August on more than 6,800 square feet of administrative and mechanical space, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
On the three-acre site, the new Surf & Swim will feature a winding lazy river, leisure pool, aquatic playground and children’s pool along with three new waterslides and shade structures. A party room for celebrating birthdays and other events will be available, along with a concession stand.
The project is slated for completion in April 2026, meaning it should be ready for that summer, Frazier said.
The project cost will be covered by the $423.7 million bond package approved by voters in 2019, which included $117 million for parks and recreation, Garland Recreation Director D'Lee Williams said.
She called Surf & Swim "our most highly attended facility, and it was just in need, like much of our city infrastructure, to be updated or renovated or completely redone," Williams said.
Fort Worth-based Fain Group has gained a reputation for water park construction — Frazier called it a "main business focus" — but this will still be a complex undertaking. Kimley-Horn is attached to the project as designer.
"It's one of the larger pool projects that's in the Metroplex so it'll be definitely a destination point for not only people in Garland, but people around the Metroplex," Frazier said.
