Richard Malouf’s Sports Environment: Water World on Strait Lane

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Was Malouf’s Water Park patterned after Celine Dion’s?

Update: Byron Harris from WFAA-TV Channel 8 interviewed me this afternoon at the Malouf’s — tune in at 10pm for some groovy aerials and more pics!

Here’s what the Malouf’s have in store for the back yard of what was once 10674 Strait Lane: Hurricane Harbor. There will be a really, really deep pool, a Lazy River, and three water slides 30 to 35 feet tall, some of which were originally to be accessible from and twist through the upstairs windows of the Sports Complex. Wheeee!

But that plan was dropped and instead, the slides will be off the observatory — you need pretty deep water for those suckers. And 35 feet tall is as tall as the city of Dallas will let you go with a water slide.

This is probably a first in Dallas, maybe Texas. I know the Dundon home over on Northwest Highway, built by Mark Molthan, has a sort of swim park, indoor-outdoor tennis courts and pavilion, baseball diamond, automatic batting cage, a putting green, a go-cart track, and two slides from the second to the first floor — one is inside the house in the family room, Trail-Dust style, and one outside, but both are dry. Malouf’s complex will trump: the Dundons only have a SWIM park, not a water park.

How in the world, where in the world, do you even begin to build a water park in your back yard, especially if you are your own sub contractor? Simple: find the guys who built Hurricane Harbor and hire them. Two water park contractors came out from Canada. Their bid: a few million. Malouf ended up hiring someone (maybe it was them, not sure) to draft a set of buildable plans, and he is self-contracting the whole thing to save money.

Actually, I’ll bet that saves at least a half million.

But they did build the lazy river too deep and had to back-fill it.

The wattage and power in the first house was enough to power the second-house-turned- sports-world, but they needed the three phase transformer JUST for the water park.

Why would anyone want a water park in their yard? To create a resort-style feel. Like the Dundon house, Malouf is creating an environment where kids can come over and have at their disposal everything they would have at a Four Seasons plus — a water park. This is a very family-oriented family with extended members.

All the excavation and activity makes it a little noisy over there, and you can’t help but wonder what the neighbors think of all the construction work, which has been going on now for over a year and is about six months behind schedule. A few I called were out of town. Owen Wilson was not too keen on the noise — he was staying at his parents’ house a few months ago and complained he couldn’t sleep during the day because of all the construction next door.

Oh I know what you are wondering because I wondered the very same thing: how can the Maloufs have a private water park with Dallas water restrictions in force?

Simple. Malouf dug his own well. There are three levels you can go with a well, and Malouf dug to the middle level. That was smart: the park is going to need about 6 million gallons of water each year.

At least that’s what we are estimating from Celine Dion.  In Florida, on Jupiter Island, the chanteuse and her hubby built a $20 million home with a backyard water park, but the community became upset that the water park used so much of the fresh water supply on the island. They claimed it led to a drought and water restrictions in the area. The Dions were fined for massive use of water, so they built six wells on the property to store enough water to keep the park fluid. This one requires 6.5 million gallons each year. It includes two pools and a lazy river. The Malouf’s may only have one pool with the Lazy River, but with a one-acre backyard space, my sources estimate it will be about the same size as Dion’s.

Dr Malouf Architectural Drawing

Candy Evans, founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters.

32 Comments

  1. Dgirl on July 12, 2012 at 4:50 pm

    That is awesome!!

  2. Dgirl on July 12, 2012 at 4:50 pm

    That is awesome!!

  3. Amy Patrick, P.E. on July 12, 2012 at 7:57 pm

    Uhhhh… Hope he has a TCEQ permit for that well. You can get in major trouble for not having those permitted, and they don't take kindly to frivolous use of the water table…

  4. Amy Patrick, P.E. on July 12, 2012 at 7:57 pm

    Uhhhh… Hope he has a TCEQ permit for that well. You can get in major trouble for not having those permitted, and they don't take kindly to frivolous use of the water table…

  5. critic on July 13, 2012 at 9:10 am

    Tasteless consumption of new wealth
    He better treat the well water to prevent the kiddies teeth decay too !

  6. critic on July 13, 2012 at 9:10 am

    Tasteless consumption of new wealth
    He better treat the well water to prevent the kiddies teeth decay too !

  7. […] Candace Evans reports that Richard Malouf, the former majority owner of All Smiles Dental Centers, hopes to turn his Strait Lane backyard into something that more closely resembles Hurricane Harbor than a residential backyard — […]

  8. […] Candace Evans reports that Richard Malouf, the former majority owner of All Smiles Dental Centers, hopes to turn his Strait Lane backyard into something that more closely resembles Hurricane Harbor than a residential backyard — […]

  9. Cheryl on July 13, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    Makes me wonder if he's trying to spend his money in doing this so he doesn't have the cash on hand if he's convicted of fraud. Pretty sad if he is guilty especially since it's our tax dollars that may have made him rich.

  10. Cheryl on July 13, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    Makes me wonder if he's trying to spend his money in doing this so he doesn't have the cash on hand if he's convicted of fraud. Pretty sad if he is guilty especially since it's our tax dollars that may have made him rich.

  11. […] Over on SecondShelters.com, our Miami correspondent, Andrea Kavanagh tells us the South Florida market is sizzling — just what I heard at NAREE. It’s from foreigner’s buying up Miami real estate with hard, cold cash. Speaking of cash, Versace said “money was not just no object, it was irrelevant” when he built his waterside mansion and lined the 54-foot swimming pool in 24 carat gold. Kind of makes a $3 million backyard water park not such  big deal, doesn’t it? […]

  12. […] Over on SecondShelters.com, our Miami correspondent, Andrea Kavanagh tells us the South Florida market is sizzling — just what I heard at NAREE. It’s from foreigner’s buying up Miami real estate with hard, cold cash. Speaking of cash, Versace said “money was not just no object, it was irrelevant” when he built his waterside mansion and lined the 54-foot swimming pool in 24 carat gold. Kind of makes a $3 million backyard water park not such  big deal, doesn’t it? […]

  13. […] not too far over on Park, but you have to cross Walnut Hill and go west to visit Mayor Mike. Or the Malouf Waterpark. It was on the market very quietly as a hip pocket with Eleanor Mowery Sheets, who sold the home to […]

  14. […] not too far over on Park, but you have to cross Walnut Hill and go west to visit Mayor Mike. Or the Malouf Waterpark. It was on the market very quietly as a hip pocket with Eleanor Mowery Sheets, who sold the home to […]

  15. […] days. The 14,748-square-foot mansion that sits off Strait Lane is almost directly across from the WaterWorld Richard Malouf is building. Ross Perot is right down the […]

  16. […] days. The 14,748-square-foot mansion that sits off Strait Lane is almost directly across from the WaterWorld Richard Malouf is building. Ross Perot is right down the […]

  17. […] hey, Water-Pik Park is coming! Look at those slides just waiting to be installed! It’s only 6.5 million gallons of water, and Texas sure has plenty of that… right? Be Sociable, Share! Tweet This entry was posted in Celebrity Homes, Dallas real estate […]

  18. […] hey, Water-Pik Park is coming! Look at those slides just waiting to be installed! It’s only 6.5 million gallons of water, and Texas sure has plenty of that… right? Be Sociable, Share! Tweet This entry was posted in Celebrity Homes, Dallas real estate […]

  19. […] some more info coming down the pike, and we are both watching progress on what I have christened “Water Pic Park”, the massive backyard private water park project Malouf is building over at 10711 Strait Lane. So Friday we met in front of the house to check […]

  20. […] some more info coming down the pike, and we are both watching progress on what I have christened “Water Pic Park”, the massive backyard private water park project Malouf is building over at 10711 Strait Lane. So Friday we met in front of the house to check […]

  21. […] upstairs windows, where there would be points of entry to the slides from inside.According to real estate columnist Candy Evans, the size of Malouf’s water park could trump Celine Dion’s famous water world behind […]

  22. […] upstairs windows, where there would be points of entry to the slides from inside.According to real estate columnist Candy Evans, the size of Malouf’s water park could trump Celine Dion’s famous water world behind […]

  23. […] to real estate columnist Candy Evans, the size of Malouf’s water park could trump Celine Dion’s famous water world behind […]

  24. […] to real estate columnist Candy Evans, the size of Malouf’s water park could trump Celine Dion’s famous water world behind […]

  25. […] to real estate columnist Candy Evans, the size of Malouf’s water park could trump Celine Dion’s famous water world behind […]

  26. […] to real estate columnist Candy Evans, the size of Malouf’s water park could trump Celine Dion’s famous water world behind […]

  27. […] upstairs windows, where there would be points of entry to the slides from inside. According to real estate columnist Candy Evans, the size of Malouf's water park could trump Celine Dion's famous water world behind her Jupiter, […]

  28. […] upstairs windows, where there would be points of entry to the slides from inside. According to real estate columnist Candy Evans, the size of Malouf's water park could trump Celine Dion's famous water world behind her Jupiter, […]

  29. […] to real estate columnist Candy Evans, the size of Malouf’s water park could trump Celine Dion’s famous water world behind […]

  30. […] to real estate columnist Candy Evans, the size of Malouf’s water park could trump Celine Dion’s famous water world behind […]

  31. […] too far over on Park, but you have to cross Walnut Hill and go west to visit Mayor Mike. Or the Malouf Waterpark. It was on the market very quietly as a hip pocket with Eleanor Mowery Sheets, who sold the home to […]

  32. […] too far over on Park, but you have to cross Walnut Hill and go west to visit Mayor Mike. Or the Malouf Waterpark. It was on the market very quietly as a hip pocket with Eleanor Mowery Sheets, who sold the home to […]

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