The experiential real estate investment trust behind several landmark hotels in Las Vegas has placed a big bet on a local wellness resort brand.
Industry titan VICI Properties, the east coast firm behind Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand, and Mandalay Bay, has contributed $500 million in total investments to Fort Worth-based Canyon Ranch, which is now gearing up for major growth and expansion.
“At VICI we seek to invest in experiential real estate centered on experiences benefitting from longer-term secular tailwinds. We believe wellness is one of the most powerful trends of our time, and Canyon Ranch is the global brand best positioned for capitalizing on the growing demand for wellness and life enhancement around the world,” said VICI Properties CEO Edward Pitoniak in a recent news release.
Canyon Ranch plans to use the financing not only to grow its business but also to build out its portfolio of resort destinations and wellness centers, according to the news release. The company plans to achieve this by expanding first to major urban markets in the U.S. and then taking the brand overseas.
“The intent is to add additional resorts,” said John Goff, managing partner at Goff Capital Partners and owner of Canyon Ranch, in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “The focus will be North America, but ultimately this is a brand that can be overseas in other countries. There is a huge appetite for wellness since this brand began over 40 years ago.”
As part of the company’s domestic expansion, Canyon Ranch is opening up a 25,000-square-foot Wellness Club at the forthcoming Crescent Development in Fort Worth.
Located along West Seventh Street and Camp Bowie Boulevard in the city’s Cultural District, the club will be a members-only facility featuring a luxury spa, beauty salon, fitness center, lounges, jacuzzies, saunas, and more.
The Fort Worth Wellness Club will be the fifth destination under the Canyon Ranch brand. The club is scheduled to open in October, one month after The Crescent Hotel’s September opening.
“I’m very excited about what we can do with this company, this brand and this team,” Goff said, per the Star-Telegram.
“It was very important for us to find the right capital partner. We definitely found them, and we didn’t have to give up any ownership. They’re supplying the capital for our growth, but we’re still going to own the company,” he explained.
Canyon Ranch’s other Wellness Clubs are located in Las Vegas; Tucson, Arizona; Woodside, California; and Lenox, Massachusetts. In addition to the future wellness center in Fort Worth, the company is also opening up clubs in Austin and Houston, according to the company’s website.
Goff said he eventually plans on opening a Canyon Ranch Wellness Club in Dallas, but he gave no timeline for when that might happen. The Dallas Express reached out to the media team at Canyon Ranch for further comment but had not heard back at the time of publishing.
