Construction Begins Next Week on Northport’s $350 Million University Beach Lagoon Resort

Construction is set to begin next week on the transformative but hotly controversial University Beach, a $350 million lagoon resort planned for Highway 82 in Northport, its lead developer said Friday.

The news came from a very brief Friday meeting of the University Beach Cooperative Improvement District's Board of Directors held at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in Northport.

The meeting was led by developer Kent Donahue and attended by all three local members of the board - Steven Fikes, Shaferris Porter, and Allison Rush. It came to order at 10:37 and adjourned 10 minutes later after they raced through a small agenda, including votes to approve an annual budget, adopt a business plan, and name their local engineer without public discussion.

As with their past board meetings, no copies of the documents, exhibits, budgets, or plans were available for media covering the event or the 15 or so citizens there to watch and listen, although Donahue said they would be provided to anyone who requested the minutes after the meeting.

Then, after adjournment, Donahue did something he had not done since he was first introduced to the citizens of Northport in February 2024, the night the last city council rushed a vote to OK and partner on University Beach on the same night its massive scope was made public.

He said the local board members could leave if they wanted to, turned his chair toward the small audience, asked that TV cameras and recording devices be turned off, and took questions from the public and the media.

Donahue took heated questions and answered many of them for over an hour after the meeting, and we broke those comments out in another story published here.

The biggest breaking news from that Q&A is that Donahue said "horizontal" construction on University Beach will begin next week, if the weather cooperates.

Donahue said GFC Construction, out of Duncanville, will get started soon and spend 6 to 9 months building and paving roads and installing utility infrastructure. Look for that work to begin by the end of January at the UB site on Highway 82.

After that, the "vertical" construction gets underway.

Donahue said Phase 1 on the University Beach buildout will include their Beach Club, including its 10-acre lagoon and water park, and an events center. He said the development team has also decided to prioritize building and opening the luxury Marriott hotel announced for the resort last summer.

Donahue told the crowd that development on University Beach is moving along ahead of schedule, and he is confident they can deliver on promises made in the development agreement with the city of Northport to have key parts of the project online and open by 2029.

For more coverage of University Beach and additional info Donahue shared on Friday, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.