The Development Includes A Luxurious 5-Star Resort, Cultural Center, 120,000 Square Foot Retail Center, And More!
On Thursday, business owners, investors, and marketeers convened at the Twin Arrows Casino outside of Flagstaff, Arizona for the 6th Annual Navajo Nation Economic Summit.
Being the 3rd and final day of the conference, events are winding down as the morning sessions begin at 8 in the morning.
In a room marked B-E-H, a group called Horseshoe Bend Holdings Developments prepares to take the stage.
As attendees settle in, Tony Skrelunas, Division Director of the Navajo Nation Division of Economic Development commences the presentation.
“I felt like it’s at a stage where it’s important to share,” Skrelunas began before showing a video on the projector behind the panel.
The video depicts dramatic views of the red cliffs of Glen Canyon, traditional Navajo song and dance, and the flowing Colorado River before revealing artistic renderings of the group’s project.
The renderings display a new 60,000 square foot cultural center, luxurious 5-star resort with 400 keys, 20 rentable villas and cabins, 120,000 square foot retail development area, and recreational trails. The team notes that the concepts were designed by Gensler, a famed global architectural design and planning firm.
The most spectacular part of the project? Location, location, location. The modern accommodations will be positioned just south of the rim of Horseshoe Bend near Page, Arizona. The vast Vermilion Cliffs rise above the land on its western flanks.
Horseshoe Bend, an iconic meander in the Colorado River, flows around the bend as it runs through Glen Canyon on its way to the Grand Canyon. The 1,000 foot deep canyon feature has been a major tourist attraction with 2-4 million visitors coming to the area every year.
“I’m a kid from the Res,” said Otis Manson, leader and CEO of the Horseshoe Bend Holdings Development project. “Our grazing lands are perched along the soaring cliffs over the Colorado River.”
According to their website at https://hbhdevelopments.com, “For generations, the Mansons have called this dramatic landscape their home. From raising sheep and cattle in the canyons to roping and riding on the rodeo circuit, they have always been deeply connected to their Navajo heritage, and its special connection with The Horseshoe Bend and its environment.” Years in the making, the Manson Family of LeChee, Arizona has been planning their vision.
“I found a note the other day,” laughed Chris Deschene, Attorney for the Horseshoe Bend Development project, “We’ve been working on this project for over a decade now.”
Various phases of development will include new restaurants, new gas stations with convenience stores, and up to four additional hotels along highway 89 with 120 keys each, 18 hole golf course designed by a renowned native PGA golfer, a museum, theater, desert spa, and observation towers.
This project comes with the aftermath of the closing of the Navajo Generating Station (NGS), a power plant just outside of Page which closed in 2017 due to rising operating costs. With the plant’s closing, the region has lost an estimated $51 million in revenue.
“We’re on par with the impacts of NGS,” Deschene says, “the project is set to generate $15-16 million in taxes alone.”
The region is hurting from the loss of the power plant. Hoping to fill this economic void with a tourism boom, the project has gained a lot of support from local chapter governments to Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren in Window Rock.
“With the previous administration [the project] stalled,” Deschene continues. “For two years we had to wait for the bureaucracy- that’s what kills projects.”
Prior to Thursday’s announcement, the team had faced their share of challenges to get to where they are now. The Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife found that the project’s earlier plans were within proximity of protected eagles residing on the canyon wall, a favored location for nesting.
“We learned that the Department of Fish and Wildlife protects our resources,” Mason explains. “But it’s backwards. We had to prove the project wouldn’t affect the environment before we even got the lease.”
As a result of this study, the team had to move all developments further from the rim than initially planned. In order to comply with Fish and Wildlife, everything in the design had to be located more than 1000 meters away from the nest site.
After over a decade of negotiations and adjustments, the stage is finally set to make the Manson family’s dream a reality; illustrating the inherent issues with developing on Navajo Nation.
Tom Manson, father of Otis Manson, talked about the influence of a new administration aiming to increase tourism on the reservation.
“A new administration came, and this time he listened to us,” Tom explains. “In the last three or four months they really got behind us.”
“The only way this project can work is with the support of everyone in this room, everyone in the Nation,” Otis elaborates. “We’ve gotten more done in the past two months than we did in the last five years!”
After making some concessions on the design and reaching an agreement with the Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife, the project is looking to break ground in Quarter 4 of 2023 and begin operations by Quarter 2 of 2024.
For more information, check out the project’s website at https://hbhdevelopments.com.
Additionally, a digital flythrough video was posted on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7FsLJcHrm8&t=65s
ETD, Inc. developed the project’s environmental assessment and is proud to be a collaborator with the Horseshoe Bend Holdings Development team!
THURSDAY, 22 JUNE 2023