Primary Department: Economic Equity and Opportunity
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Jie Wu, Interim Executive Director
Secondary Department: N/A
Secondary Department Head/Elected Official: N/A
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Contract - Amendment
Project ID (if applicable): N/A
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): Great Wolf Lodge
MWBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A - Not a grant item
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
title
Request for approval of an amendment to a Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) rebate agreement with GWR Webster LLC (GWR, also known colloquially as Great Wolf Lodge) in order to provide a Tax Year 2024 fourth quarter (TY24 Q4) payment to GWR.
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Background and Discussion:
With assistance from the City of Webster (City) and Webster Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), GWR selected a 30-acre site in Harris County Precinct 2 for an indoor water park resort with a capital investment of $200 million. In order to compete with other potential sites, the City, WEDC, and GWR requested Harris County (County) rebate 2% HOT to GWR, which equals 100% of the total amount of HOT generated by GWR and collected by the County under the Texas Tax Code Chapter 352 for a period of 10 years. The agreement between Harris County and GWR, was approved by Commissioners Court on May 19, 2020. GWR opened on August 7, 2024.
A minimum appraised value of $75 million was set by the agreement and reached in 2025 with an appraised value of $149.2 million. After approval from Commissioners Court on April 16th, 2026, GWR was then paid the HOT rebate of $685,466.88 for TY25 as determined by the agreement. The funding came from Budget Code 2101 Hotel Occupancy Tax Revenue. After re...
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