Cannon Beach surf park eyes soft opening next spring, adds new tenants to retail lineup

The developer behind the Cannon Beach surf park is adjusting project plans to make way for more attractions.

Those adjustments include adding 20,000 more square feet of beach and an excavation for a 17-foot cliff-diving lagoon. As the build-out continues throughout the year on the $240 million mixed-use surf park in Mesa, Cole Cannon, the developer of the park, said he’s hopeful for guests to hit the waves late next spring for a soft opening.

The soft opening would allow the Cannon Beach team to iron out any possible kinks before fully opening to the public about 60 days later.

At full build-out, the 37-acre site for Cannon Beach near Power and Warner roads would include 500,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and hotel space and a 1.8-acre surf lagoon.

“It will be a phased development no matter what,” Cannon said. “For at least for the initial surf phase, we wanted to be a finished product and not be, for example, adding cliff diving lagoons or a bigger beach later. … That redesign has cost us some time, but in the end we think it will be a better product for the consumer.”

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