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Proposed Western Massachusetts Water Park Resort Promises 2,000 Jobs

Plans for a large water park and sports complex with a 450-room hotel in Palmer, MA.
Northeast Group

Developers are proposing a $650 million year round water park resort in the western Massachusetts town of Palmer. 

An outline of the project released Wednesday shows a 450-room hotel, two indoor water parks, athletic fields, and other amenities.

The proposed location is a 152-acre tree covered site just off Exit 8 of the Massachusetts Turnpike where Mohegan Sun had proposed building a casino 5 years ago until it was rebuffed in a local referendum.

Paul Robbins, a spokesman for the developers, said the process of obtaining state and local permits for the project is just starting.

"We would have more to say, I guess, in the spring about when there might be shovels in the ground," Robbins said in an interview Wednesday.

If built as described, the water park resort would employ 2,000 people and would become the town’s largest single employer.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.