Developer Of Massive Lake Area Project Drops More Details About His Plans For 2,200 Acres

No other single project has encompassed as much land as the enormous, 2,200+ acre development being planned on the shores of Lake of the Ozarks... other than the construction of the Lake itself.

But for now, developer Blake Hodits isn't saying much about the project — only that it's going to be worth the wait.

Hodits spoke about his project, his team at MO Lake Development, and his love for the Lake area, at the annual Real Estate Symposium hosted by RE/MAX Lake of the Ozarks, on Oct. 7 at Osage National Golf Course. Hodits, a native of Camdenton with a background in finance and tech, revealed a few more details about the specifics of his project off of Highway 5 and 54, calling it an "experiential masterplanned community."

"It’s a holistic community that’s built to fill the gaps of the community that’s a unique destination and making it a full time place to live," Hodits said. "What we’re basically putting together is a new community."

He added that their vision for the diverse property would be to make it a “year-round economic hub” and to include education opportunities. "Whenever you graduate high school, you essentially have to leave," Hodits said, speaking of the Lake area. "I identify that as a massive gap in our community." But he called that gap an "opportunity."

"Osage Beach is the tourism hub of the Lake, but we’re really missing that year-round place that delivers these career and education opportunities to the Lake. Our goal as a [development company] is essentially building infrastructure and building roads and utilities and subdividing these out," Hodits told the crowd of real estate agents, builders, loan officers, and others.

The MO Lake Development team includes Lake area natives Adam Vanderpool, Josh Fenton, and Brandi Freese. He said his team is working with PGAV Destinations, a St. Louis-based design firm with a portfolio that includes the Georgia Aquarium, a new master plan for the Alamo, and National Geographic’s Grand Canyon Visitor Complex.

Hodits grew up driving past this property daily. He laughed, remembering, "It was always for sale!"

Then he added, "Now I understand why… it takes a lot of work to do due-diligence for a project of this size."

Having found enormous success early in his career, Hodits, still in his 30s, says his time in tech gave him the opportunity to travel and explore a wide variety of places. But his success ultimately brought him back to Lake of the Ozarks. "Sometimes you have to get away for a while before you realize how great this place is," he mused. He also attested to the Lake's appeal to visitors from across the nation and even the globe. "On a global scale, Lake of the Ozarks is more widely known than Missouri," he said, crediting a combination of Netflix and the now-famous 2020 pool parties amid national Covid shutdowns. That international fame brought a fresh crop of visitors to the Lake that Hodits says represent enormous opportunities. "There’s been a lot of people who’ve come here for the first time. And most of them did not have a bad time. They’ll probably be coming back!"

In an interview after the event, Hodits — apologetically — said there wasn't much more he could say about the project... yet. But he hinted the developers are working on big ideas, promising more information would be coming eventually. All he would say is their first step will be to focus on the Lake's housing needs, but the project would ultimately be much larger than just residential neighborhoods.

He added, "It's going to be something we can all enjoy."