05/14/2026
Honey Creek’s Next Chapter Begins With Iowa-Based Operators, Local Access and a Renewed Regional Vision
MORAVIA, Iowa, Honey Creek Resort is preparing for its next chapter, and this time, the focus is clear: reopen the doors, welcome people back to Rathbun Lake, rebuild confidence, and position one of southern Iowa’s most important tourism assets for long-term success.
After months of uncertainty surrounding the future of the state-owned resort, the Iowa Department of Administrative Services has selected two separate operators to lead the next phase of Honey Creek Resort and The Preserve at Honey Creek Resort. Ember Grove Hospitality Group will manage the resort, while Maxim Golf will manage the golf course.
The decision marks a major step forward for the resort, the golf course, Appanoose County, Rathbun Lake, and the broader southern Iowa region.
Mark Campbell, director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, introduced the two companies during a media and community leader visit to the property. Campbell said the state’s immediate goal is to get Honey Creek open as quickly as possible, while also creating a thoughtful path toward a longer-term management plan.
“The short term, really, is to get the doors open as quickly as possible,” Campbell said. “People have come here for years, season after season, and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to fulfill those commitments that were made.”
Campbell said the state has continued to invest in the property and remains committed to Honey Creek’s future. He pointed to work already completed or underway, including new roofs, infrastructure improvements, furnaces, heat pumps and continued maintenance of the facility. He said the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Administrative Services are working together to support the resort moving forward.
“I think anybody that walks through here and takes a look at the state’s continued commitment into the infrastructure knows we’re here for the long run,” Campbell said.
A Short-Term Plan With a Long-Term Goal
The current agreement is designed to get the resort and golf course open for the 2026 season while giving the state and potential long-term operators time to evaluate the property, its needs and its future potential.
According to Campbell, the state plans to issue a long-term request for proposals, likely in August. That process is expected to run 90 to 120 days, with the state hoping to award a longer-term agreement in the October or November timeframe. A new long-term operator would most likely take over around February.
That structure gives the resort a path forward without losing another summer season.
The immediate goal is simple: get guests back into the lodge, get golfers back onto the course, bring people back to Rathbun Lake and begin rebuilding momentum.
Honey Creek Resort has long been viewed as one of the most important public tourism assets in southern Iowa. The property includes a lodge, cabins, restaurant space, conference areas, an indoor water park, marina access and The Preserve, an 18-hole golf course known for its natural setting near Rathbun Lake.
For Appanoose County, the resort is more than a vacation destination. It has been a driver of local employment, weddings, conferences, golf outings, tourism traffic and spending at area businesses. Its reopening is viewed by many local leaders as a key piece of strengthening the regional economy.
Ember Grove Hospitality: Bringing the Resort Back to Life
Ember Grove Hospitality Group, based in Iowa, will manage the resort side of the property. Travis Wiederien, chief development officer and senior vice president of operations for Ember Grove Hospitality, said the company saw Honey Creek as an opportunity to revive a place with tremendous potential.
“We showed interest in the project because we’re an Iowa-based company and we really wanted to see Honey Creek Resort come to life again,” Wiederien said. “It’s a hidden gem, and we don’t want it to be the hidden gem. We want everybody in Iowa to know about it and come here and share family experiences, meetings and golf.”
Wiederien said Ember Grove Hospitality has more than 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry. The company owns and manages Stony Creek Hospitality, a Midwest hotel and conference center group with properties across the region, including Iowa, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and other markets.
He said that experience with hotels, large conference centers, guest service and resort operations gives Ember Grove a strong foundation as it steps into Honey Creek.
The timeline is aggressive. Wiederien said the company hopes to have guests in the building by mid-June, with a larger Fourth of July grand opening as a goal. Before that, the company hopes to host a soft opening period to begin welcoming visitors and working through the early stages of operations.
“Our goal right now, pending everything goes as smooth as possible, we want to be able to have guests here mid-June,” Wiederien said. “We’re going to plan for a big Fourth of July kind of grand opening.”
Wiederien acknowledged that reopening a resort requires moving quickly on systems, websites, vendors, staffing and operations. He said the company already has vendor relationships and will push to get things moving as quickly as possible.
Local Involvement Will Be Critical
One of the strongest themes from Ember Grove’s message was the importance of local support.
Wiederien said Honey Creek will only succeed if the surrounding community is part of the process. That includes local workers, local visitors, community input and a shared sense of pride in the resort’s future.
“We need the local community to be active and part of this,” Wiederien said. “A lot of our workers are going to come from the local community. We want people to come back and really revive this place.”
He said Ember Grove wants to listen to those who have been connected to Honey Creek for years, including local residents, former guests, employees and community leaders.
“They’ve been a part of this a lot longer than we have,” Wiederien said. “We’re going to take input and vision from them and get everybody involved as much as possible and really build this for a destination that everybody can be proud of, not just us.”
That balance, making Honey Creek a statewide and regional destination while still keeping it accessible to local residents, appears to be one of the central goals of the transition.
The resort has always had the potential to bring visitors from across Iowa and surrounding states, but local use and local support are just as important. The new operators said they want Honey Creek to be a place where Appanoose County residents feel welcome, not priced out or disconnected from the property.
Restaurant Vision: Iowa Favorites at Iowa Prices
The restaurant is expected to be a major focus under Ember Grove Hospitality.
Wiederien said the goal is not to create an overly complicated or overly expensive dining experience. Instead, he said the company wants a restaurant that feels connected to Iowa, with familiar favorites, seasonal menu changes and reasonable prices.
“I’m born and raised in Iowa. My family’s in Iowa, so we know what an Iowa restaurant really looks like,” Wiederien said. “Our goal is to make it something that people want to go to.”
He said the company wants the restaurant to become a destination of its own, a place where locals and visitors will come not only because they are staying at the resort, but because the food and experience are worth the trip.
“We’re going to have a good menu that changes seasonally that people can enjoy and have those good Iowa choices and good Iowa prices,” Wiederien said.
That approach could be especially important for local residents who may not be staying overnight at the resort but still want to use the property, dine at the restaurant, attend events or bring family and friends to Honey Creek.
The Water Park and Facility Improvements
The indoor water park has been one of the most discussed parts of Honey Creek’s recent history. Campbell said Associated Pools, the original pool designer and builder, is expected to return to work on the facility.
“Associated Pools is coming back,” Campbell said. “They are the original pool design and builders, and they’ll be on site here in a few weeks to redo the whole pool, and we hope to have it open in about three and a half months.”
That means the water park may not be available immediately when the resort reopens, but the state is moving forward with plans to restore it.
The work is part of a broader effort to stabilize and prepare the property for future success. Campbell said that after the state regained control of the resort, prior staff were brought in as state employees to help maintain the property through the closure.
“We immediately brought in prior staff and hired them to state employees to make sure that the integrity of the property was maintained,” Campbell said. “Obviously, with a facility sitting empty for a very short term, we wanted to make sure there was no challenges, water, heat, things like that, and make sure that they get reopened as soon as we got it back.”
Maxim Golf: Restoring The Preserve
While Ember Grove focuses on the resort, Maxim Golf will take over management of The Preserve at Honey Creek Resort.
Josh Black, a partner with Maxim Golf Group, said the course has personal meaning to him and his family. He said he has played the course many times, has connections to the original golf professional, and has watched others close to him help restore the course during earlier periods of difficulty.
“Everybody I’ve ever been in business with has done something for this place, and it just has become a very special place to me and my entire family,” Black said.
Maxim Golf manages 25 total properties, including courses in the Kansas City market and across Missouri. Black said the company has experience taking struggling courses and turning them around.
“They’ve all been sort of like this, where they’re in trouble and we turn them around and turn them into winners,” Black said.
Black described The Preserve as a beautiful, natural course with the potential to become one of Iowa’s best.
“It’s an absolutely beautiful layout, and it’s so natural,” Black said. “You’re out away from everything. It’s a very peaceful place until you hit a bad shot.”
He said the course has not received the care it deserves in recent years, but that is exactly the kind of challenge Maxim Golf is prepared to take on.
“That’s what we do,” Black said. “We put things back together and make them amazing. And that is our goal for this, to be one of the best golf courses in the state, which is where it deserves to be.”
Golf Course Could Open Quickly
Maxim Golf is moving quickly. Black said the goal is to open the course in nine days, with the understanding that improvements will continue throughout the first season.
“We’re going to try and open in nine days,” Black said. “It’ll be a product worth paying for. It’ll be a discounted product, and we’ll make sure that greens and tees are very good and fairways as good as we can get them as fast as we can.”
Black said golfers should expect progress, not perfection, in the earliest days. The company’s first priority will be the essentials: greens, tee areas, fairways, mowing, flagsticks and overall playability.
“There’ll be bumps along the road,” Black said. “But within a month we’ll have a phenomenal product and people will be hopefully beating the door down.”
The bunkers will take more time. Black said there were originally 53 bunkers and he counted 48 remaining, but none are currently playable. The long-term plan is to work with a company that specializes in bunker restoration, with a system designed to last 25 to 30 years. Since that full project cannot happen immediately, Maxim Golf plans to start with drainage repairs and re-sanding when possible.
The early focus will be getting the course playable, affordable and welcoming.
Affordable Golf and Stay-and-Play Opportunities
Black said the course will be very affordable at the beginning as Maxim Golf works to get people back into the habit of playing at The Preserve.
“We have been charged with getting people in the door and reviving some old buying habits and creating some new buying habits,” Black said.
He said Maxim Golf plans to work closely with Ember Grove Hospitality to create stay-and-play packages that are affordable for families, golf groups and travelers.
“For people who are doing trips with their family, where they may spend two or three thousand dollars to fly and go do something, we’re going to be in the hundreds of dollars for them to come and enjoy this,” Black said.
That approach fits with the broader vision for Honey Creek: make it a regional destination without losing its local accessibility.
High School Golf and Junior Golf
One of the most encouraging pieces of Maxim Golf’s long-term vision is its interest in junior golf and local high school partnerships.
Black said the company is “all in” on junior golf and wants student athletes to use the course. That could include local tournaments, practice rounds, major high school events and eventually larger competitions.
“We’re all in on junior golf,” Black said. “That is the future of our customer base. We want them playing golf.”
He said there is no reason the course cannot host high school events, and Maxim Golf would eventually like to pursue major high school tournaments and state-level opportunities.
“This is a good spot for them to play,” Black said.
Maxim Golf also plans to have a golf professional on site. Black said an offer has already been made to a qualified golf pro and said the company wants someone who shares its customer-focused approach.
“We’ll hire a quality human being who has our same heart and mindset, is able to have fun with the people as they come in and play golf, not chase them off,” Black said.
A New Chapter After a Difficult Transition
Honey Creek’s recent history has been complicated. The resort closed in October 2025 after the Iowa Department of Administrative Services announced the end of its business relationship with Achieva Enterprises. A legal dispute followed, including a temporary injunction that restored Achieva as operator for a period of time. After further court action, the state was cleared to seek new management.
While that transition has been difficult, state officials and the new operators are now focused on the future.
The short-term agreements with Ember Grove Hospitality and Maxim Golf are designed to move Honey Creek forward quickly while giving the state time to develop a longer-term plan. Campbell said the long-term RFP will allow companies to tour the property, study the opportunity and submit proposals for the next phase.
The decision to separate the resort and golf course operations is also significant. Campbell said companies bidding on the resort could also bid on the golf course, but the state also allowed golf-specific companies to focus only on The Preserve. That opened the door for a professional golf management company like Maxim Golf to concentrate on the course while Ember Grove focuses on hospitality, lodging, dining and events.
Campbell said the state looked for companies with experience, strong portfolios and the ability to bring customers to the property.
“All the companies that bid for both projects brought the skills and the portfolio that we’re looking for,” Campbell said. “People that truly know the business and have a background, not just in resort management, but with culinary, with our restaurant here, with conferences and the ability to have a footprint that brings the customers.”
A Shared Vision: Regional Tourism With Local Pride
Across the state, resort and golf course operators, one theme was repeated again and again: Honey Creek can be both a local treasure and a regional destination.
For Ember Grove Hospitality, that means a resort that welcomes families, meetings, conferences, weddings, local diners and visitors looking for a lake getaway.
For Maxim Golf, that means a golf course that is affordable and accessible now, while being restored into one of the premier public courses in Iowa.
For the state, it means protecting a major public investment, supporting southern Iowa tourism and giving Honey Creek the stability it needs to grow.
For Appanoose County, it means something even more personal.
Honey Creek has long been described as a gem. But as Wiederien said, the goal now is to make sure it is no longer hidden.
The next few weeks will be important. The golf course could welcome players back first. The resort hopes to begin welcoming guests by mid-June. A Fourth of July grand opening is the goal. The water park restoration is expected to take several months. The long-term RFP process is expected to begin later this summer.
After months of uncertainty, the direction is finally forward.
Honey Creek Resort’s next chapter is beginning with Iowa-based operators, a renewed focus on local involvement, affordable access, and a shared belief that the resort can once again become one of southern Iowa’s strongest tourism engines.
