A nearly 20-acre stretch of former concrete plant land on the St. Charles riverfront could soon become the site of a glass-enclosed beach resort complete with a waterfall grotto, swim-up bar and year-round swimming. The St. Charles City Council is scheduled to vote Nov. 17 on a tentative deal to sell the property to Lux Haven, a development group pitching its first resort project.
What Lux Haven Is Proposing
According to STLtoday.com, the tentative agreement would sell the former concrete plant site next to Family Arena to Lux Haven for $4.1 million. The site sits south of Interstate 70 in Riverpointe, along the Missouri River. The centerpiece of the pitch is a 189-foot-by-189-foot glass enclosure that would let hundreds of guests enjoy year-round swimming in a beach-like setting, complete with a waterfall grotto, swim-up bar, several restaurants and a spa, the outlet reports.
The broader project, dubbed the Beach Club at Riverpointe, is proposed to include a 200-room hotel and 315 condos, ranging from one-bedroom to three-bedroom units. Per the station's report, condos would be priced between $400,000 and $800,000, with custom-built units selling for more than $800,000. The hotel would come in a later phase, while condo construction would occur in the first and second phases.
Beaches, Retail and an Event Center
The proposal also calls for three beaches, more than 25,000 square feet of retail space, and an event center for weddings and corporate events, the same account notes. Renderings show multiple cabanas and swimming pools, though city documents reportedly refer to the pools as lagoons. The first half-acre lagoon and beach would likely open in winter 2027, with the full build-out expected to take up to seven years to finish.
The tentative sale price is $4.1 million, or about $4.89 per square foot, for the nearly 20-acre parcel.
City Officials Weigh In
Ward 3 City Councilman Vince Ratchford, who represents the Riverpointe area, described the riverfront as untapped, unused and underutilized, and said the city wants the Riverpointe development to attract both visitors and residents. Ratchford also said the deal recognizes the city's earlier decision to acquire the properties. St. Charles Mayor Dan Borgmeyer said the development would be unlike anything else in the Midwest, according to the same report.
Brad Temme said the city has not nailed down exact incentives because project costs and other details remain under review, and St. Charles has not yet extended tax incentives to Lux Haven. Lux Haven has negotiated with the city for two years and provided St. Charles with what the outlet described as a very conceptual rendering of the project — a reminder that the design is far from final. St. Charles, for its part, has long seen value in redeveloping the riverfront.
A Site With a Long, Bumpy History
Riverpointe was first announced in 2019 as a $350 million commercial and residential project envisioned as a bustling entertainment district with restaurants, breweries, resorts and even a Ferris wheel. Progress has been slow: Chicken N Pickle, which opened in 2023, has been the only business to open at the site, according to a separate STLtoday.com report. The original developer, CRG, walked away from the project in 2024, citing pandemic-related uncertainty, rising interest rates and construction costs.
Sources differ on just how big the overall Riverpointe footprint is. A City of St. Charles development presentation describes a 120-acre project spanning 1.6 miles of riverfront, while St. Louis Magazine has described Riverpointe as a 325-acre development. The evidence reviewed does not explain whether those figures reflect different boundaries or definitions of the project area.
Other hotel plans have surfaced for the broader Riverpointe site over the years, including a proposal combining a 106-room AC Hotel with a 78-room Element hotel, featuring a 12,500-square-foot banquet room, meeting spaces, a pool and rooftop bars. An earlier master-plan concept from Lamar Johnson Collaborative envisioned a 40-acre riverside water feature alongside office space, retail, hotels and residential development — a scale of ambition that has echoed through Riverpointe's various iterations.
The glass-enclosed beach concept also has company beyond Missouri. In McKinney, Texas, a $200 million mixed-use project called Cannon Beach is planned around an approximately 4-acre surf lagoon on a 35-acre site, according to Community Impact — a sign that lagoon-anchored resort developments are drawing interest in multiple markets.
For now, the St. Charles proposal remains just that — a proposal. The council's Nov. 17 vote concerns only the tentative land sale, and incentives, costs and other project details remain under review.
