What's the Deal? | Aventuur Is Building America's Largest Wave Garden in a City That Already Has an Ocean. Here’s Why.

Jacksonville already has an ocean. Nicholas Edelman is spending nine figures to build waves there anyway.

His company, Aventuur, closed on 40 acres inside eTown in South Jacksonville for $21.1 million in June 2025, cleared permitting this year, and is targeting a fourth-quarter groundbreaking on the first Wavegarden Cove in Florida. The lagoon runs 5.5 acres across 62  modules, which will make it the largest Wavegarden in the United States and, by Edelman's account, tied for the largest anywhere.

Jacksonville has surf. What it lacks is surf you can count on.

"Jacksonville is one of the highest engagement cities in the U.S. by the WSL data for surfers," Edelman says. "It's got a very passionate and core surf community, but unfortunately it does have very variable surf conditions. So you've got this amazing surf population, very passionate, without consistent access to surf."

Aventuur did not pick the city on feel. Before settling on a first American market, the company ran a regression across every city in the country, weighting climate, population inflows, tourism data, disposable income, and several proxies for surf participation. \ Dallas was under consideration for Aventuur’s U.S. flagship location. Still, the team ultimately moved forward with Jacksonville after connecting with multigenerational local families, identifying a top-tier site, and seeing an opportunity to serve a passionate surf community with variable conditions.

"We met a great group of local multi-generational Jacksonville families who were looking to bring a Wavegarden to Jacksonville," Edelman says. "We'd done city analysis of the top sites that we'd want to put the Wavegarden, and this group had connectivity to the owner of one of our top areas. So the combination of a great local group, an A site, plus a passionate surfing population with variable surf conditions made it just a no-brainer for us to go there first."

Traded spoke with Edelman about the capital stack, the geotechnical work that reset the budget, the unanimous city vote that followed, and why he believes a wave lagoon underwrites itself.

From Deutsche Bank to the lineup

Edelman grew up in Australia, studied at Cambridge, and spent six years at Deutsche Bank across Hong Kong, Singapore, and New York, financing infrastructure and renewable energy. That is the skill set he now points at surf.

The bridge was Pegasus Surf Lodges, a collection of six boutique surf hotels he first invested in from Singapore in 2014. At the end of 2017, the founder asked him to run it, and Edelman brought a Cambridge friend, Richard Duff, now his Aventuur co-founder, with him.

"Pegasus's motto was moving in nature with friends and family," he says. "That was something that really resonated for me from a personal perspective."

While he was there, the technology moved. Kelly Slater's wave debuted in December 2015. Waco followed in 2018. Customers turned up. The math still did not work.

"The commercial viability of the technology wasn't there," Edelman says. "Essentially, the wave frequency was too low to justify the cost of capital. You could only have around 12 people in the water, which was hard to monetize."

Wavegarden's Cove technology, released in 2019 after roughly two decades of development, changed the denominator. Capacity went from 12 surfers to 80. Output went from 180 waves an hour to 1,000.

"That was really the moment that the commercial viability opened up," he says. "And we had a unique background where we combined our passion and our skill set to found Aventuur."

The amenity that pays for itself

Most master plans treat the marquee amenity as a loss leader. A golf course exists to sell the lots around it. Edelman argues a wave garden is a different instrument.

"The Wavegarden justified its cost of capital on a standalone basis at around a mid-teens unlevered yield on cost," he says. "So normally you have a loss-leading amenity that then helps your surrounding real estate. Here you've got a cash-generative amenity, an amenity that then can naturally have other parts of the ecosystem surround it."

The Jacksonville program follows that logic. Inside what Aventuur calls Bay Road sit the surf and leisure assets: a members club, a boutique hotel of up to 120 keys, a cafe, a beach bar, and a pool. The Grove at the entrance carries retail. The lagoon's north shore holds the surf ecosystem, with surf retail, changing rooms, and a high-performance surf academy. Beyond Bay Road, the surrounding development could include 300 multifamily units, 200 condos, and two separate retail areas.

Aventuur is developing the Bay Road vertically and delivering horizontal works for everything outside it. The multifamily pad is already under contract.

"People currently want to live near health and wellbeing amenities," Edelman says. "So we're seeing real estate respond with ice baths, sauna, great food and beverage, good coffee in the morning, and then other retailers of service, yoga studios, Pilates studios. We believe our ability to curate a health and wellbeing precinct will uplift the land value. It has done so in the multifamily pad, which we've got under contract."

The water table

Last fall the cost basis moved. Geotechnical work found groundwater close to the surface, forcing a dewatering system and pushing the budget up more than 20% against an original estimate near $110 million. City officials told council the developer was weighing whether to stop.

Edelman pushes back on that account.

"I'd say the project in jeopardy was probably a little sensationalized from that article," he says. "The geotechnical work we did on the front end was sound. We are using a dewatering system in Jacksonville, which is increasing the cost, and as the project progressed, we worked through what that meant for the final budget. We were pleased to receive support from the city through the REV Grant, which has been helpful as we continue to advance the project.”

What arrived instead was public support. In November 2025, Jacksonville City Council approved a 10-year, 75% Recapture Enhanced Value grant worth up to $4.6 million by a vote of 17 to 0. The city's own analysis projects 100 permanent jobs at an average of $50,000, hundreds of construction positions, and a $1.36 return for every dollar committed.

Asked what he put in front of council to get a unanimous vote, Edelman starts with the community, not the pro forma.

"Our mission is to enhance mental and physical well-being," he says. "We're strong believers in outdoor recreation. Getting kids off phones, getting people together in person, whether it be for a coffee, a surf, a beer. It's important that, especially in this time of the digital age, we are spending time together."

The commercial case ran second: a tourism amenity with state and national pull, jobs, and tax revenue.

How the capital is structured

Aventuur is running three projects on three continents at once. Perth is under construction for late 2027. Auckland will draw waste heat off a Spark data center to warm its lagoon. Jacksonville is targeting a 2028 opening.

Each one is ring-fenced.

"Each project is individually capitalized, so we've got individual SPVs for each project, and again local project teams," Edelman says. Aventuur has also raised capital at the platform level.

Teams are built the same way. "Our development team in Perth- their mission is the successful delivery of the Perth Surf Park. They don't have to look at New Zealand or Florida," he says. "And then there are a few of us who have to sleep less well at night with looking at the global remit."

In Jacksonville, the land seller stayed in the deal. "We're happy that they're also an investor behind the deal, on an LP basis," Edelman says. The multi-generational Jacksonville families sit in the GP, alongside a group of local LPs.

"We understand the surfing niche and the development and operation of a surf park in a lot of detail, and they bring fantastic local relationships in the Jacksonville market," he says. "It would be hard for them to replicate our surf knowledge, and it'd be impossible for us to replicate their deep relationships in the market."

Eight markets, and a track record to protect

Aventuur holds exclusive Wavegarden rights across 8 markets in the United States, including Dallas, Austin, Nashville, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix, and Jacksonville. Aventuur is also planning to develop destinations in Los Angeles and New York. It also holds rights in Perth, the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Auckland, and Queenstown. Edelman says the company is Wavegarden's largest partner globally.

He credits delivery rather than a pitch. Andrew Ross, one of his business partners alongside Duff, built the first Wavegarden in the Southern Hemisphere, in Melbourne, and took it through operations. Last year Aventuur raised US$100 million for the Perth project, landing its first institutional equity investor, Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia (RAC), with debt from National Australia Bank.

"Wavegarden has trusted us with key markets here in the U.S. based on performance," he says. "This isn't part-time for us. We're not doing this as a fun side hustle."

A second U.S. project, in Texas, is close to announcement.

The 2032 case

Edelman reads the category as an access problem rather than a demand problem.

"Within the U.S., there are currently 3 million people surfing, and from our data, close to 30 million people who aspirationally would like to try the sport or engage in surfing," he says. "The key thing that's been missing within the category is access."

Aventuur's internal work points to 20 to 30 wave gardens being feasible in the United States. The company is targeting eight to ten

Capital markets are the other half of the thesis. Aventuur has seven years of operating data from Australia to underwrite against. The United States has two wave gardens and roughly a year of trading history at Virginia Beach.

"By 2032, the earnings capability of the wave garden will be well understood," Edelman says. "And consumers will know they can go to the wave garden; they can engage in learn-to-surf programs. Like you can learn tennis or learn golf, surfing is a sport that you can actually learn how to do."

Why he is building it

Aventuur sponsors the Supergirl Pro and backs young surfers in Jacksonville, where the lagoon will double as a training facility. Ask Edelman what he expects to think about when the first wave fires, and he goes to the community rather than the balance sheet.

"People get almost giddy with excitement when they see these facilities turn on," he says. "We're building it for that surf community in Jacksonville. If we can provide an incredible amenity to them, help enhance their lives, that' will make this a great success."

The reason he is doing any of it goes back further. Edelman broke his neck in a surfing accident, fracturing C5 and C6, and spent six to 12 months without mobility before recovering fully.

"It took away the thing that I treasured the most in life, which was movement," he says. "The ability to participate in activities, be it surfing, be it skiing, even just going for a walk or run with friends."

"During that time, I made a promise to myself that if I were lucky enough to recover from that accident, I would do something that I'm completely aligned with from a passion and values perspective."

He is direct about what he took from it.

"When people used to cheers for good health, I used to sort of laugh. But I now truly believe health is the most important thing we have in life. If in my short life I can help people have a healthier, more active outdoor life, then I will die very happy."

The Deal, at a glance

 

Interview conducted by Traded for its What's the Deal series. Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.