MONKEY ISLAND — Tulsa businessman Eddy Gibbs held another groundbreaking on Friday.
This time, he is adding a $5.5 million structure called Activity Park to his Shangri-La Resort on Grand Lake. Since 2010, Gibbs, the former owner of Tulsa-based Ameristar Fence Products, has invested over $75 million of his own money in the Grand Lake vacation destination spot.
The property includes a 119-room hotel with an over-the-top swimming pool and splash pad, restaurants, a 27-hole championship golf course, luxury homes and an 8,000-square-foot convention center. “Here we go—I mean grow again,” said Shangri-La President and CEO Barry Willingham to a crowd of around 250 people who attended the ceremony.
Willingham told the crowd the multimillion-dollar park will be on four-and-half acres adjacent to the hotel at the resort. One of the eye-popping amenities is a miniature Fenway Park, a replica of the famed baseball stadium home to the Boston Red Sox. Gibbs’ park will offer waffle ball. Other activities include outdoor tennis courts, pickleball courts, sand volleyball and basketball.
The 11,000-square-foot indoor facility includes bowling lanes, golf simulators, shooting simulators, pop-a-shot basketball, pool and ping pong tables, a 40-seat theater that doubles for video conferencing, a coffee bar and an indoor-outdoor bar and lounge. Willingham continues to dismiss the idea there is an off-season on Grand Lake. “Shangri-La is all-year-around, not just from Memorial Day to Labor Day,” Willingham said.
Willingham also explained the pickleball courts — a paddleball sport that combines tennis, badminton and table tennis. “It’s the fastest-growing sport,” Willingham said. An event lawn area that can hold 350 people for smaller concert venues is also planned, he said. “This is all because of the vision and provision of Eddy Gibbs,” Willingham said.
Shangri-La employs 260 individuals and its membership has skyrocketed from 84 members to 522 since Gibbs took over in 2010. “Shangri-La is about family, and it’s a lifestyle,” Gibbs said. Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell touted the tourism industry. “Tourism is the third-largest industry in Oklahoma,” Pinnell said. “A $700 million industry.” “Oklahoma is better than OK,” Pinnell said, citing tourists from Japan, Australia and the Czech Republic who visit northeast Oklahoma and stay at Shangri-La.
Pinnell also highlighted the Oklahoma Fishing Trail, which is designed to highlight the best of the state’s fishing. “We have more man-made lakes and a diverse fishing, including five different species (around Grand Lake),” Pinnell said. Shangri-La Resort was known for its golf courses in the 1970s and 1980s before hard economic times led to ownership changes and bankruptcies. Gibbs bought the property in 2010.