King's Pointe Resort posts $45,700 loss despite higher revenue

King’s Pointe Resort slipped $45,700 into the red in the first three months of 2026 even after bringing in $1.05 million in revenue, a result that shows how close the city-owned property can come to breaking even and still miss the mark once fixed costs are counted. The resort generated about $44,000 in gross operating profit before overhead, but roughly $80,000 in insurance and management fees pushed the quarter into loss territory.

Finance Manager Tyler Gibbins and General Manager Amy Von Bank presented the profit-and-loss statement to the city council earlier this month. The numbers pointed to better day-to-day control inside the resort, but not enough to overcome the expenses that come with operating a major public attraction in Storm Lake. Occupancy for January through March fell to 41.2 percent, down 2.3 percentage points from the same period a year earlier, which helps explain why management was looking to busier months ahead.

The resort did cut combined expenses in its hotel rooms, Regatta Restaurant, gift shop and indoor waterpark by 10 percent compared with the same months in 2025. Spending also fell sharply in administrative, sales, marketing, maintenance and utilities categories. Even so, insurance, property-tax liability and management fees climbed, underscoring the basic problem with the winter quarter: operational gains inside the property were not large enough to absorb the broader carrying costs outside it.

That tension matters in Buena Vista County because King’s Pointe is not a private hotel. It is a city-owned asset that opened in 2007 as part of Project Awaysis after voters approved the bonds in 2006. The resort includes 100 rooms, cottages, indoor and outdoor waterparks, a restaurant and a golf course, and Storm Lake taxpayers have long expected it to stand on its own rather than lean on city property taxes.

The winter loss also lands against a stronger longer-term record. The resort posted a $240,000 net profit in 2022 on $3.9 million in revenue, then a $219,000 profit in 2024. In 2025, it finished the fiscal year ending March 31 with $112,000 in profit, its fourth straight profitable year and ninth out of 10 in the black. That same year it employed 200 people, generated 66 percent of the city’s hotel-motel tax revenue and paid just under $288,000 in property taxes.

Still, the city’s 11-month pause in regular income statements during 2025 left residents watching the latest quarter closely. To erase the first-quarter deficit, summer business will need to do more than improve occupancy from 41.2 percent. It will have to produce at least another $45,700 in operating profit just to get back to even, and enough beyond that to cover the overhead that keeps deciding whether King’s Pointe finishes the year in the black or the red.