Renderings of the planned Therme resort in downtown Dallas.
Courtesy of Therme
Therme Group got the initial green light from zoning officials for a proposed $850 million wellness resort near downtown Dallas.
The Dallas City Plan and Zoning Commission on Thursday approved a request from the European-based wellness company that operates spa, sauna and indoor water complexes to modify zoning around its 1500 S. Riverfront Blvd. project site and obtain a special use permit for a new pedestrian bridge.
The new planned development district would modify zoning for nearly 61 acres around the site — Therme’s 24-acre parcel and a remaining 37 acres owned by Dallas developer Jack Matthews’ Cadiz Development-Dallas LLC, which could be used for future office or residential development.
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The requests were approved after nearly half an hour of discussion. Commissioner Tabitha Wheeler-Reagan recused herself from the vote, with all others present voting in favor. No one spoke in opposition to the project. The items now head to the Dallas City Council for final approval.
“Therme is committed to the City of Dallas and eager to advance a project that will create hundreds of jobs, generate millions of dollars in new tax revenue and deliver a wellbeing destination unlike any other in the United States,” John Alschuler, executive chairman of Therme Group U.S., said in a statement.
Plans for the development were first announced in March 2025, and the big-ticket items remain largely unchanged, Alschuler previously told The Dallas Morning News. Project representatives made various tweaks over the last month, which include improving planned public spaces and providing a better connection to the Trinity River.
The wellness facility would anchor the site in the Cedars neighborhood, just south of downtown Dallas. The development is expected to include a 450,000-square-foot, climate-controlled indoor facility and roughly 5 acres of outdoor pools and other attractions.
Therme Dallas would offer visitors thermal baths, 20 kinds of saunas, wet rooms, mineral pools, water slides and immersive works from local and international artists, as well as multiple restaurants. The Georgetown Co., which owns a 25% equity stake in Therme U.S., plans to build a hotel on the site that would be jointly owned by the two entities.
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Gensler is the architect for Therme’s regional wellness campus. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the firm that designed the landscape for the George W. Bush Presidential Center, is the project’s landscape architect. The facility’s landscaping would include more than 1,000 palm trees and native Texas plants.
Matthews and his Matthews Southwest firm will build infrastructure for the project. The Therme resort would be surrounded by the planned wetlands of the Dallas Water Commons.
Alschuler previously saidthat the resort is expected to create more than 1,000 permanent jobs and potentially generate roughly $2 billion in tax revenue over 30 years. Therme estimates the new Dallas facility will draw nearly 2 million visitors a year.
The planned resort is dependent on several factors that are not yet resolved.
Therme plans to seek economic incentives from the city, including funding from the area’s tax increment financing district. If the incentives are approved, the resort could open in 2031.
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Therme operates five facilities in Europe, with eight additional properties under development across Asia, Europe and North America. The company welcomes 5.5 million visitors annually at its locations in Germany and Romania. Questions about the company’s practices emerged in April 2025 after The New York Times reported that Therme misled government officials and exaggerated its experience to secure a development deal in Toronto. Therme disputed the reporting in multiple public statements.
Therme recently broke ground on its $1 billion wellness resort in Singapore. The 720,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open in 2030, the firm said.
Alschuler hopes to bring this project before the Dallas City Council this fall. Groundbreaking could come a year after the council’s vote.
“As conversations continue about the future of downtown, we are more committed than ever to our site along the Trinity River,” he said. “We strongly believe Dallas is positioned to become one of the world’s great global cities in the decades ahead.”