Oct. 26, 2002 - TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.--Where once only the buffalo roamed, a $32-million water park resort is being built, aimed at mom, dad and the kids. 

The 281-room, 360,000-square-foot Great Wolf Lodge, with seven water slides and four pools, won't open until March, but more than 1,000 reservations are already on the books, more than half of them from the Detroit area. It marks the second indoor water park in Michigan. The first was built in Sterling Heights last November. 

"We're taking advantage of a change in vacation habits," said Craig Stark, president of Great Lakes Companies Inc., during a tour of the incomplete facility. "People are taking shorter vacations, and they want to include their children. We think it will be the largest log construction project ever. It will have that homey, USA feeling." 

The 48-acre site, south of downtown Traverse City on U.S.-31 South, has long attracted tourists because it has been used as a pasture for buffalo owned by Oleson's Food Stores, which promoted the low-fat meat in its markets. About 20 of the animals will be kept as part of a nature walk attraction at the resort. 

Donald Holecek, director of the Tourism Research Center at Michigan State University, said the resort will help fill a gap in Michigan's tourism industry. 

"We're undersupplied in theme parks," he said. "I think it will complement other tourism attractions, such as golf, skiing and the casinos. It's an answer to that old question: `What do we do with the kids?' " 

The Wisconsin Dells in northern Wisconsin is considered the mecca of water parks. The first one was built there in the early 1990s. There are now about a dozen in that state. There are 950 water parks in the United States, according to the World Waterpark Association. 

The multimillion-dollar water parks now being built are several degrees of magnitude greater than earlier versions. And they dwarf Holiday Inns' Holidomes, which the motel chain began opening in the 1970s. 

Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City is the third water park to be developed by Great Lakes Companies. The first was in the Wisconsin Dells. The second opened in 2001 in Sandusky, Ohio, near Cedar Point. There is one under construction in Kansas City, Kan., and several more are in the planning stages. 

Accommodations are a little pricey. 

Family suites at Great Wolf Lodge -- there will be no single rooms -- will range from $129 to $399 a night during the peak season, which is anytime children are out of school. There will be attractions for parents, but the emphasis will be on children. About 200,000 gallons of water heated to 84 degrees Fahrenheit will fuel the pools and a tree house water fort. 

The popularity of water parks surprised many in the tourist industry, including Victor Martin, owner of the Sterling Inn Banquet and Conference Center in Sterling Heights. He opened the state's first last November and said the public response has been greater than he imagined. 

Martin said it was serendipity that he even built it in the first place. He was planning a swimming pool expansion. By happenstance, his chef visited the Wisconsin Dells and returned with the suggestion to consider a water park. Martin said he was doubtful because the inn caters mainly to a corporate clientele. But he went ahead with a 22,769-square-foot indoor water park that features a 5,000-square-foot pool with a three-story water slide. 

"Mainly, what we were trying to do was increase weekend occupancy," he said. "But it's been crazy. We're sold out. February used to be our slowest month. Now we're already fully booked. There's been a growing trend toward families traveling and vacationing together. Studies have shown that a third of corporate travelers take at least one trip a year with their families. 

"The trend really spiked after Sept. 11. Families started asking what was important after that, and apparently, one thing they decided was that they wanted to spend more time together." 

The senior vice president for sales for Great Lakes Companies, Eric Lund, said occupancy at his firm's water parks averages around 80 percent. 

"Not bad for a resort that caters to 2- to 12-year-olds," he said. 

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(c) 2002, Detroit Free Press. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.