Isn't it grand? A behind-the-scenes look at the $215M ski resort plan in Grand Prairie

It’s been about 25 years since Plano resident Sherman Thurston started creating real snow from thin air, bringing this patented technology to indoor ski resorts throughout the world.

He never thought he’d use this mystifying power in Dallas-Fort Worth, but the idea began to snowball during the Great Recession.

Thurston didn’t want to lay off employees of Allen-based The Grand Alps Group, so he told them to keep designing a better and better resort. When the market returned, he’d sell the refined plan.

And he did. The City of Grand Prairie jumped at the chance to bring North Texas’ first indoor ski resort to the region’s snow-starved residents, a feat estimated to cost upwards of $215 million.

“I’ve presented 160 projects in the past three decades in business to all sorts of different municipalities around the world — and only three of them were accepted with open arms,” said Thurston, who is building similar facilities in Spain, Brazil and Malaysia. “Grand Prairie was one of those cities; from the mayor to the council to the staff.

“They were really able to grasp the vision and say it made a lot of sense,” he added.

The 57-acre public-private development across Belt Line Road from the Lone Star Park horse racing track includes a $140 million, 350,000-square-foot indoor ski facility, as well as a $75 million Hard Rock hotel.

At full build-out, Thurston said the entire project will include three, 300-room hotels and cost upwards of $400 million.

The pricey project is being financed with EB-5 funding — or foreign investment — and a mixture of hedge fund and capital firm investment, said Levi Davis, a co-chairman of The Grand Alps Group, who has a background in investment banking. Right now, most EB-5 funding originates in China.

Candace covers commercial and residential real estate and sports business.