By Robert Niles: Is another big theme park company looking to build in Orlando? Rumors of Six Flags or Cedar Fair or someone building a new park in Central Florida appear as often as campaign commercials these days. But Richard Bilbao at the Orlando Business Journal — traditionally a solid source of news in the local business community — is reporting that a "top U.S. theme park operator" is looking at a 200-acre site on International Drive.
The OBJ reports that the park operator, with the help of international investors, is looking at the 100 acres plus of the Artegon Marketplace as well as the neighboring Acquasol sports complex property. That 78-acre parcel was the site of the proposed (and rejected) Orlando Thrill Park.
The neighborhood opposition that killed that proposal likely will try to block any new park on the site. So who would want to take on that challenge, not to mention the burden of trying to compete with Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld in the world's most crowded theme park market?
Let's start by eliminating that Big Three from consideration. Disney's not about to expand off its still-abundant property. Universal already has an expansion site on I-Drive. And SeaWorld needs to bolster its existing Orlando assets... and not mess around with a separate property miles away.
Who's left, then? If we define "top U.S. theme park operator" as a company that operates parks in the United States, rather than one headquartered in the U.S., that opens up Merlin Entertainments, which already has Legoland Florida in Winter Haven and operates the Orlando Eye and SeaLife Aquarium on I-Drive. Merlin's also the only operator outside of Disney and Universal to build a major successful park in the United States in the past 20 years. But what brand does Merlin have to bring to Orlando? Two hundred acres seems a bit much for a Dungeons property. Plus, the company's already working on another Legoland in Orange County, New York.
Let's move on, but don't forget those supposed international investors aiding the project. While Six Flags hasn't built a park on its own since Six Flags Over Mid-America (now Six Flags St. Louis) in 1971, it happily has licensed its name to parks now under construction in China and the United Arab Emirates. With international investors paying the bills, perhaps Six Flags would be willing to license its name to a foreign-built park in Orlando. Ditto for Cedar Fair.
Parques Reunidos and Herschend also might be willing to play under those terms. Herschend most recently operated a Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede dinner show in Central Florida from 2003 to 2008 before selling the property for an expansion of the neighboring Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets mall.
And if we're willing to expand the definition of "theme park" to include water parks (which Universal seems eager to do), that adds another player to the mix — Schlitterbahn. With Universal closing Wet 'n Wild in favor of the more elaborately-themed Volcano Bay, opening in 2017, that opens some space in the Orlando market for a Wet 'n Wild-style thrill-focused water park, which is Schlitterbahn's expertise.
The Texas water park company is facing deep trouble these days, following the death of a boy on its Verruckt slide in Kansas last summer. But an infusion of foreign cash to bankroll an entry into the lucrative Orlando market might provide a cushion for whatever legal settlement/judgment and lost income the company will end up facing due to its role in the child's death.
Of course, all this talk could be yet another Florida real estate developer's attempt to create a straw man to bid up interest in their properties, with the help of an anonymously sourced local news article. Theme parks are a brutally capital intensive business, and while international investors might be eager to pour cash into growing and underdeveloped markets such as China and Dubai, entering the mature and competitive Orlando theme park market requires an entirely different level of financial courage.
Does Orlando need another theme/amusement/water park player? If so, which one?