Work began in mid-September on the $116 million Senoa Resort & Spa, formerly known as the Oak Creek Heritage Lodge at 115 Schnebly Hill Road. The resort will have 70 guest rooms and four workforce housing units in 29 structures across 11.5 acres.

On Sept. 8, Olson Real Estate Group Inc. and Senoa Investors filed a two-year extension of the Development Review Approval for the resort, which had been approved on Dec. 10, 2024 and is set to expire on Thursday, Dec. 10. The extension will require the developers to go through the public hearing process before approval.

Senoa Resort has been delayed for years working its way through the city of Sedona’s approval and legal challenges. The Planning and Zoning Commission’s approval of the project on April 16 was appealed by two separate parties. Sedona City Council heard both appeals on June 25, 2024, and voted 4-3 to approve the appeals, denying the project.

After City Council denied the resort by accepting the appeals, Olson Real Estate Group, doing business as R.D. Olson Development, and its subsidiary developers 115 Schnebly LLC, filed a lawsuit against the city and seven residents, challenging the action. Council held a public hearing on Dec. 10, 2024, and approved a Settlement Agreement with the property owner and applicant, thus approving the project and nullifying the lawsuit.

The resort will carry a Marriott brand, though Marriott will not operate it, according to Wilhelm.

“Senoa Resort & Spa is slated to open in late 2028,” according to R.D. Olson Construction. “Construction will have a phased approach with the first covering the demolition and remediation of existing buildings, grading, drainage, utilities, site work improvements and certification of building pads. The second phase will focus on new villa construction and finalizing site work.”

The grading and drainage permits are anticipated to be finalized by mid-October, with building permits anticipated to follow in December or the first quarter of 2027 according to President and CEO of R.D. Olson Construction Bill Wilhelm, the project’s general contractor.

Disruptions to traffic during the construction are anticipated to be minimal according to Wilhelm who said he at most anticipates a lane along Schnebly Road to be closed for a few hours at a time.

“None of the plans submitted to date require a traffic control plan,” Community Development Director Tony Allender wrote the NEWS on Sept. 29.

The resort will have a two-story restaurant along Oak Creek, along with a 5,500 square-foot spa and a 3,200 square-foot event space.

“We’ve demoed some of the site, some parking areas, a couple of the outer buildings,” Wilhelm said. “We’ve gone through [to] start to clear trees that have to be cleared. We’ve gone through to protect existing trees that are going to be protected in place. We’re prepping right now for the civil work, which will consist of the grading, as well as the wet and dry utilities.”

Wilhelm added that project’s name was changed to select a more unique name for the property.

Sedona City Council unanimously approved a development agreement with Senoa Investors LLC for four units of workforce housing on the site during its Aug. 25 meeting. The developers agreed to use the city’s 80% to 120% of the area mean income as a definition for the workforce housing. The units will be located on the south end of the property, where vehicles enter the resort along the main drive. During the meeting, a neighbor questioned why trees had been cut down and said the developer had cleared the site without the proper permits.

“The trees that we have noted that have been removed are the trees that would be removed as part of construction for the buildings,” Allender said. “So everything is in accordance with the permits that are granted. They do have drainage and grading permits, in our offices now under review, so they can move forward with those as well. But as far as permits go, they’re in compliance.”

The decisions about which trees to keep were made early in the process by arborists, based on the project’s original entitlements and on each tree’s health and life span, according to Wilhelm.

“It’s a serious matter to us, and so we’ve been on site now protecting any and every tree that has been marked or identified as to be protected, and it is our intent to preserve as much as we possibly can,” Wilhelm said.