EarthQuest Adventures theme park coming to Houston area

I thought people just weren't building theme parks in the US?

No, there are plenty of parks being built. It's just that none of them have been successful yet. :)

Wild West World

Hard Rock Park / Freestyle Music Park

The ongoing saga of Ghost Town in the Sky and Conneaut Lake

Hopefully Legoland Florida won't be on this list in a couple years.

"We expect to see 1.5 million people come through the theme park gates each year alone," said Chris Brown, president of Contour Entertainment (the resort's master planner and lead designer). "This will be much bigger than Astroworld."

Good luck with that. This is never happening.

If they're banking on seeing those kind of attendance projections in real life, this could very well end up as Hard Rock Park II (if it even gets that far).

I cant wait to ride the solar power launch coaster that gets you up to 20mph.

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country. With no major parks within 200 miles, I hardly think 1.5 million is outside of the realm of possibility.

For what it's worth, Astroworld was drawing about that many people in its final years.

-Nate

ridemcoaster said:
I cant wait to ride the solar power launch coaster that gets you up to 20mph.

Ha! :)

w....o......o.......s.........h.

One of these days, one of these brand new lofty parks will get off the ground and be successful. Most of the time, it seems as if it is the dream of a ten-year-old kid.

I agree with CoasterDude. Houston has over 4 million residents and draws a large number of visitors due to the oil and medical industry. Kemah Boardwalk is the best thing that we have now. I am going to try to be positive here and hope that it is successful. Houston needs something fun to do.

Sounds great, I hope it is successful. I hope they put Morals, Karma and Integrity behind their work (see Holiday World...) for best growth/business potential.

I forgot which park in Europe is very Earth friendly - and has one of those huge Wind Mills out front to generate energy.

Hard Rock predicted 3 million, not 1.5...

Not that that would have made a difference. ;)

It looks like an impressive concept. If it ever opens I'm in!

With all that CRAZY oil money in the Houston area (not a big proponent of trickle-down as far as policy is concerned, but there are *some* undeniable benefits to the entire region/community) - yes, I believe a park there could be wildly successful.

I actually got in a conversation about this par a few days ago. the country and surrounding counties hold more then 4.2 Million. There is a major air port in Huston. so it's not a terrible idea. 1.5 Million isn't all that high didn't astro world pull 1.2 million?

Thing is though the parks in general especially the first phase is so large I'm not sure is only 1.5 million could pay back the investment needed.

An Eco-themed park finanaced by oil money? Ooooh the irony! ;)

I still think that closing Astroworld was a mistake by the former SFI mgt. A park in the Houston area would do well. Even Astroworld wasn't losing money, IIRC. And it hadn't added a major ride in a long time.

I'm not sure if it was a mistake, but it's one of those situations where you have to ask how many years it would take to make the money that selling the land would make. When you're hurting, the tolerance for that number gets really small.

...Which is why they closed the park to sell the land just as the commercial real estate market was collapsing.

I have no proof, but I wonder if the whole idea of closing Astroworld didn't originate as a threat to get some kind of a property deal (cut of parking? lease on adjacent land? property tax reevaluation?). Then as it became obvious that Snyder was taking over, when Snyder indicated that he thought closing AstroWorld was a bad idea, Burke hurried up and closed *and demolished* the park in a final insult on his way out the door.

It just seems to me that everything Premier Parks did was entirely ego-driven, and such a move seems to be in that character.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Jeff, I agree 100%, but having hindsight and seeing now that they didn't make nearly what they thought they would out of the deal, even with a cash strapped company, I think it was a bad decision at the end of a lot of other bad decisions that led to them almost having to close the park. I don't think it was some mistake off to its self, mind you. Everything Burke and Co. did in the last couple years I feel was a mistake.

Had it happened later, maybe I wouldn't feel the same, had they announced realistic prices they were going to get. I mean, in the end, it is 1 less park that they company had operating and tax costs to worry about.

But it's water under the bridge. I'm still waiting with anticipation to see what the new guy is going to do after Shapiro's big finish.