Garden Grove OKs plan for amusement park - Los Angeles Times, 11/30/06

[Darkbeer]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-m...ninav-business

After years of failed efforts to land some sort of tourist attraction, the Garden Grove City Council has agreed to let an investment firm move forward with plans to construct a $4-billion amusement park in a city best known for its annual strawberry festival.

The park, which would include three resort-style hotels, would be built on a 150-acre site on Harbor Boulevard, three miles down the road from Disneyland.

The plan's backers also told the council that they wanted to invest an additional $4 billion to build a nearby retail and entertainment complex.

Though details were sketchy and the source of the investor's money is murky, council members enthusiastically embraced the theme-park plan, voting 5-0 Tuesday night to begin a 90-day negotiating period with the Los Angeles-based investment firm, TL Properties.

As part of the agreement, the company — which represents Korean interests — must put up $500,000, hire theme-park consultants, develop a preliminary concept and provide details on funding for the project.

Michael Lim, a TL Properties consultant, said the company was formed solely for the purpose of building a theme park, and he identified its president as Korean American Chris Yang, a Los Angeles building inspector who has a doctorate in quantum physics from Hamburg University in Germany.

"It has always been his dream to build an amusement park, but we have no background in this," said Lim, adding that his company is backed by a Hong Kong investment firm..........


Greg Blodgett, an economic development manager for Garden Grove, said the city is encouraging TL Properties to build a "next-generation park" that would complement Disneyland.

"We're looking at something along the lines of Islands of Adventure, Universal's second park in Orlando," Blodgett said.

[BlueSkyDriveBy]

I am totally loving this!

This is far more capital investment than what Disney initially spent for DLR's expansion. And creating a park similar in scope to Islands of Adventure sounds terrific. If the designers can pull it off, I would certainly consider spending vacation time at their resort vs the DLR, as I now do when I visit Orlando, spending at least half my time at Royal Pacific, visiting the Studios and IoA.

And after seeing the huge outpouring of Baxter Bashing on various discussion boards over the past two days, I would love to see Tony finally retire from Disney on his upcoming 60th birthday, and form Baxter Design Studios. And I would love to see Tony's group work with other groups started by former Imagineers, such as Kirk Design and Sotto Studios, to build this new park and resort in GG. Then to top things off, this new resort could offer more equitable wages than the DLR and have the ability to pick-and-choose the best candidates from Disney for their new cast members.


I'm tired of Disney's arrogance regarding the DLR. I want Disney to finally get some real honest-to-goodness competition, created by former Imagineers whom the Dopey Building deemed were no longer worthy as permanent employees.

Disney has gotten too big for its britches. Time to shake things up.

[WRDup]

I also think this is too good to be true. maybe seeing how much money others are spending and what good ideas they come up with will put disney in its place and make them realize they need to step it up a little bit.

perhaps with some good ol fashioned competition we might see better things coming out of WDI.

[pixie chick]

I'm also excited for this. I would love to see Garden Grove start a "beautification" project in conjunction with this and hopefully it would spread to Westminster and other nearby cities! This would be great for the area!

[Demigod]

Personally, this doesn't bode well for residents of the area. Traffic is already a nightmare even with the improvements made over the past few years.

There'd have to be some serious infrastructure improvements in order to handle the increase in traffic, etc.

[JesterMn]

So... is this somehow part of the GardenWalk project? Or is that part of Anaheim? I mean, where exactly is this going to be located, anyway? The only major land plot off Harbor I can think off is the farm fields, and I was under the impression they had no interest in selling off their land.

As much as I welcome any sort of amusement park, I think this is overkill. Knott's is already nearby, and Universal and Magic Mountain are not all that far off. I didn't even mention the water parks. Does SoCal even need another park, even if it is IOA quality?

[WRDup]

Originally Posted by JesterMn

As much as I welcome any sort of amusement park, I think this is overkill. Knott's is already nearby, and Universal and Magic Mountain are not all that far off. I didn't even mention the water parks. Does SoCal even need another park, even if it is IOA quality?

I dont see MM, Knotts or Universal as actual competition for disneyland. they are novel ideas but we all know the sad shape both knotts and MM are in. and universal isnt much to talk about. so this new park seems like it could be legit. plus its really close to DLR.

again i say that i hope it inpires WDI to start putting out.

[Disneyphile]

Oh man. So much for the nice little quiet suburb I've grown to love over the last few years......

While it's great, it also disrupts that cute "small town" atmosphere that's been a nice escape from bustling city life. There's nothing I love more than heading over to historic main street for a Sunday breakfast, or the Friday night car show. And with the close proximity of this proposed project, I feel that would go away quickly.

[Darkbeer]

Originally Posted by JesterMn

So... is this somehow part of the GardenWalk project? Or is that part of Anaheim? I mean, where exactly is this going to be located, anyway? The only major land plot off Harbor I can think off is the farm fields, and I was under the impression they had no interest in selling off their land.

The Original Article has a map of the location.

Basically the South West corner of the 22 and Harbor Blvd.

This has NOTHING to do with the Anaheim Garden Walk, which is located just east of the Disneyland Resort.

[cellarhound]

1. Iger needs to rethink the DCA revitalization plan.

2. Competition would be good for Disney...

3. Yeah, I am mad at Baxter... I was actually sticking up for him, and WDI a month ago... But if they are unwilling to even present multiple ideas on the table for Disney other than expand the shopping area...

Uh... Welll... Perhaps the new guys shouldn't hire him either...

[Mac Daddy]

Originally Posted by Darkbeer

The Original Article has a map of the location.

Basically the South West corner of the 22 and Harbor Blvd.

This has NOTHING to do with the Anaheim Garden Walk, which is located just east of the Disneyland Resort.

Is Garden Grove INSANE???

That's just north of the Orange Crush! WHERE do they think they're going to put this extra traffic?

Just a reminder....

Anaheim Stadium

plus

the Ponda Arena

plus

Proposed NFL stadium

plus

the DLR

plus

Hotel and convention center traffic

plus

The Block

plus

Main Place Mall and downtown Orange, Garden Grove, Santa Ana

plus

Billions of commuters already on the freeway

equals

A BIG FRICKIN MESS!

And they want to add ANOTHER THEME PARK in ADDITION to the DLR????



That's it.

I'm moving to Idaho.

[monotonehell]

Originally Posted by Darkbeer

The Original Article has a map of the location.

Basically the South West corner of the 22 and Harbor Blvd.

This has NOTHING to do with the Anaheim Garden Walk, which is located just east of the Disneyland Resort.

Amazingly I guessed that was the location from looking at google maps. I love the little street of Westminster Ave in the Southwestern corner of the block - "A Better Way"

[mrmainstreet]

$4 BILLION?? That's significantly more than IoA! I'm starting the odds that thing will fall through and not materialize at huge amount dollar sign at 50-to-1.

[ejw]

I'll place my bet that it will never happen, at least as big as they see it now.

[TDR_Fan]

Originally Posted by mrmainstreet

$4 BILLION?? That's significantly more than IoA! I'm starting the odds that thing will fall through and not materialize at huge amount dollar sign at 50-to-1.

If they are getting money from another company, it could be possible. Though $4 billion is a lot of money for a non-Disney park. It says in the article that $2 billion of that money is being spent on land relocation; that's already half the money and the park wouldn't have even been built yet! I'm also doubting that they'll build THREE major hotels in the area as well in addtion to the park with that $2 billion. It just seems too good to be true, and I doubt they will end up with that much money.

On a similar note, Tokyo DisneySea was built at a cost of $3 billion because the budget was backed up by the Oriental Land Company. Because Disney did not have to pay for it, WDI were allowed to do whatever they wanted without a budget.