Canyon Ranch Austin Opens at $1,325 a Night

By Nathan Snyder, Editor, The Hotelier Times

Canyon Ranch opened its Austin-area resort in late October on more than 600 acres along Lake Travis in Spicewood. It has 141 rooms, a 40,000-square-foot spa the company bills as the largest in Texas, and all-inclusive stays from $1,325 per person per night. There are also 134 homesites with homes from $3.8 million. For Texas owners and brokers, it is a test of how far ultra-luxury wellness, paired with branded residences, can go in a market still absorbing new rooms.

What Opened

CultureMap San Antonio and CultureMap Austin reported the opening this week, and Canyon Ranch announced it was welcoming guests in an Oct. 30 release. Reports differ on the exact first day. Canyon Ranch’s June announcement set an Oct. 15 opening, Lake Travis News reported first guests on Oct. 22, and CultureMap reported the opening on Oct. 29.

The resort sits at 600 Moonlight Bend with 1.5 miles of Lake Travis shoreline, about an hour from downtown Austin. San Antonio’s Lake Flato designed the architecture, with interiors by Dallas-based Waldrop + Nichols Studio, CultureMap reported.

The numbers that matter to an underwriter:

• 141 guest rooms, consistent across CultureMap, Lake Travis News and Canyon Ranch’s releases.
• From $1,325 per person, per night, all-inclusive of lodging, meals and daily fitness and wellness activities. Additional spa treatments can cost extra. Stays of two nights or more include a $200 nightly spa and fitness credit, and stays of three nights or more add a $300 health and wellness credit (CultureMap).
• A 40,000-square-foot spa with 40 treatment rooms, billed as the largest in Texas. Canyon Ranch’s June release listed 37 treatment rooms; the opening-week materials say 40.
• The Barn, a 27,000-square-foot fitness facility, and The Wellspring, a 12,000-square-foot medical center, plus more than 30 daily activities and programs.
• Dining led by Estella, with a culinary program from Val Cantú of the three-Michelin-star Californios, per CultureMap and the Oct. 30 release.

For now, Lake Travis News reported, the resort runs on a stay-only model: guests book at least two nights or own a home there, and the spa does not sell day passes.

“It’s a place that could only exist here and is shaped by the extraordinary landscape and spirit of the Texas Hill Country,” Canyon Ranch CEO Mark Rivers said in the company’s release, as quoted by CultureMap.

The Homes Are Half the Story

The Ranch Home Collection includes 134 homesites of 0.8 to 3.7 acres, with homes of about 3,200 to 4,800 square feet starting at $3.8 million, according to CultureMap and Canyon Ranch. (One bullet in the company’s Oct. 30 release says 131 homes; the same release and CultureMap say 134 homesites.) Homeowners get access to the resort and a concierge wellness program.

That second revenue line matters. A 141-key hotel at this price point carries heavy ground-up costs. Residential sales can help fund it, and a resident base can fill the spa and dining rooms on slower weeks.

The Capital Behind It

Canyon Ranch was founded in Tucson in 1979. Fort Worth investor John Goff’s Goff Capital acquired the company in 2017 and moved its headquarters to Fort Worth, according to CultureMap and the Fort Worth Report.

The financing is a useful model. In 2022, VICI Properties agreed to provide a delayed-draw term loan of up to $200 million to fund Canyon Ranch Austin’s development, according to VICI’s announcement. The deal also gave VICI a right to buy the Austin real estate once the resort stabilizes, with Canyon Ranch then operating it under a long-term triple-net lease. No notice that VICI has exercised that right has been made public.

Construction cost estimates vary. A Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation project filing lists an estimated cost of about $122 million ($121,974,798) for the roughly 224,000-square-foot project. DailyTrib reported in March an estimated $130 million price tag. Neither is a final, all-in figure, and it is not clear how much of the residential infrastructure either includes.