Wellness Experts to Open a Stunning New Austin Resort, Clubs in Houston and Fort Worth — Canyon Ranch Jumps Into Texas

The life-enhancing luxuries of Canyon Ranch, perfected over four decades of providing spa-infused wellness, are on the way to the Lone Star State via the Texas Hill Country where plans are underway for a resort located a short drive from Austin. The Texas commitment, revealed this week, includes the addition of Canyon Ranch clubs in both Houston and Fort Worth and an app to support guests needs 24/7.

“It’s a great market. We love Texas. We think Austin is a really vibrant and exciting city,” Canyon Ranch CEO Jeff Kuster tells PaperCity. “We were able to discover the right place to do it.

“It’s a beautiful piece of Hill Country not far from Austin with rolling hills, pecan groves, oaks and there is water, all you want in the Hill Country.”

Canyon Ranch has partnered with VICI Properties Inc. to secure up to $200 million in capital to develop its new Austin resort with plans to begin construction in 2023 and open to guests in 2025.

“Few understand what we really do,” Kuster says. “We deliver quite a different experience than anyone else and finding the right location to provide a setting of immersive natural beauty really helps put it all together.”

Unlike the typical resort spa, Canyon Ranch casts itself as a pioneer in wellness guidance with a team that includes scientists, doctors, professionals and PhDs who provide guests with personalized guidance on establishing and maintaining a lifetime of well being.

“Well being” are the buzzwords of Canyon Ranch.

Austin’s First Canyon Ranch

Kuster isn’t ready to release the exact Austin location of the new Canyon Ranch resort spa which joins a trio of highly-regarded resorts in Tucson, Arizona; Lenox, Massachusetts; and Woodside, California. Neither is he willing, just yet, to reveal the name of the notable architect who has signed on for the project.

Kuster does say though that part of the company’s ethos is to celebrate the location. Thus Canyon Ranch is taking the approach of “being light on the land, minimal.”

“The landscape is really so beautiful that we’re going to celebrate it,” Kuster continues. “You want to feel like you’re in the Hill Country.”

If one looks at the other resorts in the Canyon Ranch group, it is clear that sensitivity to the environment is basic to the design in all of the properties.

Club Power

The theory behind the Canyon Ranch clubs headed to Houston and Fort Worth is to enhance engagement with its visitors helping them maintain that wellness of life when they return to their homes. Kuster refers to it as an ecosystem in which people are only 90 or so minutes from the resort and have the club at home. He said that there has been demand for mini-versions of the resort experience without lodging in the cities where its resort guests live.

“We also love Texas because of the ability for us to do something in all the major metros of the state, creating this reinforcing root,” Kuster says.

Both clubs, membership based, will be 30,000 to 40,000 square feet with a full plate of state-of-the-art fitness, spa and community activities along with sports medicine experts and counselors. All at a luxury level, Kuster assures. The websites for both the Austin resort and the Houston and Fort Worth clubs are already up and can be found here.

The Fort Worth club will be located near the new Crescent development in Fort Worth, which will include a 200 room hotel and a new restaurant from celebrity chef Dean Fearing. A late 2023 opening is planned for the Fort Worth Canyon Ranch. Canyon Ranch is aiming to open the Houston Club in 2024.

A newly launched Canyon Ranch App provides additional wellness insights and guidance to guests wherever they are at any time of day or night. The first release of the App is available to guests at the Tucson Canyon Ranch resort.

Now, the wellness is coming to Texas. In a big way.