If you had $2 billion, where would you invest it? Even if your heart is set on a resort, why Vinita? Wouldn't you want to be closer to an airport and existing destinations? Grand Lake gets some traffic, but not that much. With this money, you could move in on Branson and easily compete with SDC - and Branson has an airport that is hardly being used. You could also build down on the coast, or anywhere else that gets traffic already. Why would they pick Vinita other than it being cheap, which shouldn't matter if they actually have access to $2 billion.
My guess?
You can build it for $2 billion in Vinita when it may cost twice as much (or more) in some of those areas you describe.
Some advantages of Vinita off the top of my head:
* It's literally on I-44 giving it good, direct interstate access.
* It's almost equidistant between the Tulsa metro with ~1mm people an NW Arkansas with another ~600K
* There isn't an airport right in Vinita obviously, but it's a quick ~40 minute drive down I-44 to TIA or ~90 minutes to Bentonville.
* It's a naturally beautiful area and is in close proximity to Grand Lake, which provides some extra vacation/getaway "synergy"
I guess I don't see how this is any different than Branson, Missouri, was when it was being built up essentially in the middle of nowhere 50-60 years ago. In fact, Vinita has better access to travel infrastructure and population base than Branson did.
I'm not saying it will be a success or will ever even get built, but (to me) it does make some sense.