New life breathed in resort project in Hollister
The first steps in reviving the waterpark resort project in Hollister have been taken.
On Thursday, Sept. 3, the Hollister Board of Alderman approved the first reading of ordinance 2026–23, which would approve the designation of the redevelopment area design in HB Resort LLC as the developer of redevelopment project two and improving the amendment to the Hollister Parkway tax increment financing redevelopment plan.
This ordinance combines two parcels, previously set for development in 2016, for redevelopment. Parcel two and Parcel three will be combined and going forward be known as Project 2. Parcel two was originally designated for Imagine Resorts and Hotels, who in 2020 revealed plans for a new resort and water park. The project stalled, and the parcel has been sitting with more than 8 million in infrastructure improvements, but not much else. Post COVID saw many changes to the project, including a large budget for completion. Now it seems the project to build a resort and waterpark is once again greenlit for development under a new name.
In 2020, Imagine Resorts and Hotels planned on building a 575,000 square foot facility. At the time, Bruce Neviaser, CEO and Managing Member of Imagine Resorts, said he was excited for the project and hoped to break ground in 2021 and complete the resort and waterpark in 2023.
“We’re so pleased to bring the world’s first of the family-friendly, branded destination resorts to the vibrant vacation area of Hollister and Branson,” said Neviaser in 2020. “This resort will be an exciting addition to the area, and we look forward to being an active member of the business community.”
Neviaser is still leading the development of the property, which is located behind Menards. Now the resort will be the first ever Hasbro Destination Resort. Teaming with Hasbro, the iconic toy and game company, the resort is slated to become a flagship property for the company.
Hollister City Administrator Lamar Patton said Neviaser has been a part of the project since the beginning and Bruce Suh came in a few years later. Both Suh and Neviaser are a part of the leadership team for the new project. These are the folks that are the leadership team for this resort. Bruce Navas and Kevin have been a part of this. Bruce has been a part of it from the beginning. Once the Imagine Hospitality Group started with this, Kevin came on years later as the president of that company. Andrew Stevens, Mike Diaz and David Buddemeyer are also part of the leadership team.
“So they form HB Resorts. Hasbro is the licensing partner of this resort, which gives it a lot of appeal to every generation,” Patton said.
Patton presented a presentation for the aldermen and residents in attendance on the redesign of the previously planned water park and resort, now under the Hasbro brand.
“Here's a rendering of the resort as it is currently designed. It's right there, just south of Menards and goes all the way to Highway 65. So, this kind of shows a little more of an artistic rendering of what the design looked like, as you can tell, it's a 10-story hotel and 20 cabins,” Patton directed the aldermen to the presentation. “The water park itself is an indoor waterpark.”
“This is an overall site plan. It shows you all the functionality. Here's the arc on it from the roundabout as you enter the property. This shows all the different buildings and what those are. The resort will be built on 65 acres. It has a gross building area of 561,000 square feet. The resort will house 450 guest rooms, 20 cabins, 75,000 square feet in convention and meeting spaces,” Patton said. “There will be seven food and beverage outlets. Plus, the 100,000 square foot indoor water park. There will be approximately a 41,000 square foot family entertainment center.”
Patton said Hasbro will bring a lot of their unique licensed characters, games and style to the resort experience.
“There's Monopoly. There's Clue. There's Nerf,” Patton said. “There's all kinds of different components to this. There’s Transformers and many opportunities to collaborate with the Hasbro brand.”
According to the presentation, the destination scale investment is projected to bring into Hollister and the region: $500.8 million in development investment; $282 million of annual recurring regional economic output; $725.3 million in gross incremental public revenue; $386.1 million in retained local public revenue. It will also create 585 or more jobs with $47 million plus in average annual employee compensation. The resort projects it will host around 600,000 visitors a year.
Hollister Mayor Jeff Long told the Branson Globe the city is ready for what the resort will bring to the city and the area.
“We are so excited about it,” Long said. “We’ve been thinking about all of the conventions they can host. The Comic Cons and all of that. It has been a long time coming, and I know the developers have been really working hard on it for months now. Seems like everything is in place. I mean this is transformative to Hollister and the area.”
The project is now expected to be complete at the end of 2028, with an opening currently scheduled for January 2029, according to Patton.
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