Tampa advertising executive sets sights on bringing a $70 million surf park to the Bay area
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 10, 2022

A longtime branding and advertising executive is looking to bring a 30-acre surf park to the Tampa Bay area — if he can find the right property to bring his vision to life.

Tony Miller, who was CEO and partner at advertising agency Spark for more than a decade before departing in 2017, purchased a license to bring Australian-based Surf Lakes’ technology to the Tampa Bay region in January 2021. He’s spent the last year assembling a team to pursue the project and scoping out properties for Peak Surf Park, which would span 30 acres and include a wave pool, food and beverage service, parking and potentially other recreational sports, like climbing walls, a skate track and trampolines.

All in, Miller is projecting development costs will total $60 million to $70 million. He’s assembled a small group of private investors and says he has several other financing options for development and construction, including sustainability funds looking to back projects like Peak Surf Park.

Up to a half-mile of beachfront would surround the surf lagoon, Miller said. He nearly closed a property deal in September, but those plans fell through late in the process. He also sees opportunity for ancillary hotel and retail development.

“There are a lot of people moving into the area, which creates a lot of competition for land,” Miller told the Tampa Bay Business Journal. “There’s a lot of competition for land that didn’t necessarily exist even two to three years ago.”

Peak Surf Park has been Miller’s full-time focus since January 2021, when he signed his license agreement with Surf Lakes. Bruce Erhardt, an executive director with Cushman & Wakefield Inc., leads Miller’s real estate search. Behar Peteranecz is the architect on the project; Stantec is the engineer. Truett Gardner of Gardner Brewer Hudson is his land-use attorney, and he’s also engaged Tampa lobbying firm Ballard Partners.

While it’s a new concept to the U.S., potential surf park locations are growing around the globe. In the next decade, Miller and Surf Parks founder and CEO Aaron Trevis expect 200 to 300 parks to rise up around the world.

Trevis recently kicked off a U.S. tour with a stop in Tampa Bay on his way to visit other Surf Lakes licensees in Las Vegas and Dallas.

“Compare [Tampa Bay] to the Gold Coast — it’s double the market,” Trevis said. “We’re excited about the one we’re going to build here. Tampa is such a great destination; it just needs waves.”

Miller sees the park’s appeal reaching well beyond surfers. He compared the surf parks to the golf courses of the late 1990s and early 2000s — in that they could become must-have amenities for residential developers. The parks are recreational destinations that also serve as training venues for professional athletes. Local high schools, he said, could have surf teams that train and compete at the park.

“There are tremendous community benefits,” he said. “This isn’t just for hard-core surfers.”