Northgate Resorts plans to convert a 272-site campground into the only Jellystone Park Camp-Resort on the west coast
Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Northgate Resorts has acquired a 272-site campground next to the Tower Park Marina in Lodi, which it is converting into a Jellystone Park Camp-Resort.
“We’re very excited about this location,” said Zachary Bossenbroek, CEO of Northgate Resorts, a private company that owns seven other Jellystone Parks, mostly in the eastern half of the country. “Our vision is to make the campground in Lodi into a true destination resort.”
Northgate has experience doing just that.
In fact, half of the Jellystone Parks Northgate owns received national awards last year from Leisure Systems, Inc., the Milford, Ohio-based company that franchises Jellystone Parks across the U.S. and Canada.
Northgate’s accolades included an “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award for its 240-site Jellystone Park in Gardiner, N.Y., which scored the highest year-over-year gains in occupancy and revenue of any park of its size in the Jellystone Park network. Its camp-resort in Quarryville was named Camp Resort of the year for 2015. Also in 2015, all Northgate parks received a 95% or higher on their assessment.
Bossenbroek said Northgate plans to use the Jellystone Park in Gardiner as a template for what it would like to achieve with its Lodi park. That means making improvements in staff training, customer service and park activities and amenities. “We are working right now on getting the right staff in place to be able to provide top notch customer service and activities, which is already starting to take place,” Bossenbroek said.
Jellystone Parks offer organized family activities and themed weekends with Yogi Bear, which help families create unique memories. Activities across Jellystone Parks include arts and crafts, scavenger hunts, face painting, jumping pillows, gem mining as well as plentiful interactions with the bears.
Themed weekends are usually scheduled from March through early November, depending on the park’s location, and range from family athletic competitions with various sporting events to Christmas in July with Christmas Carole Karaoke and other holiday themed activities to pre-Halloween themed weekends with costume and campsite decorating contests and trick or treating.
Jellystone Parks are also known for their water play parks, which often include water slides and interactive water features. Bossenbroek said Northgate plans to build a water play park at its Lodi campground as part of a series of improvements over the next 18 months.
“We believe our activities and themed weekends combined with the new amenities will attract families from throughout the greater San Francisco Bay area and the San Joaquin Valley,” Bossenbroek said.
For more information about the Jellystone Park in Lodi, please visit http://towerparkresort.com/jellystone.
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