Buddy johnson Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 Hope it'll be nice. SUWON, South Korea, Nov. 26 (Yonhap) -- Universal Parks & Resorts, its local partners and the government of Gyeonggi province will sign a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday calling for the construction of a Universal Studios theme park at a seaside location in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi province, by 2012, the provincial government said Monday. Hwaseong is about 70 kilometers southwest of Seoul. The Universal Studios theme park is expected to create about 60,000 new jobs, as it will feature a variety of entertainment facilities, restaurants, hotels, exhibition and convention centers and resort and spa centers, the provincial government said. Universal Unveils Details Of Korean Theme ParkBy EVAN RAMSTAD November 27, 2007 6:42 a.m. SEOUL, South Korea -- Universal Parks & Resorts unveiled details of a $3.1 billion theme park and resort, becoming the biggest in a mini-boom of large-scale vacation projects now under construction in South Korea. The theme park, hotels and golf courses will cover 1,160 acres (4.7 million square meters) in the Seoul suburb of Hwaseong and be similar in scale to Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. The company will also build a convention center and an outlet shopping mall. In the past few months, developers have announced plans to build three other large theme parks around the country. The burst of park construction is a sign of South Korea's growing affluence and increasing leisure time after the country a few years ago scaled back to a five-day work week from the previous six. One of the new parks, involving Viacom Inc.'s Paramount studios, will be built in the neighboring city of Incheon by 2009. The city is also the home of South Korea's largest international airport. "Timing is everything and this is Korea's time," said Frank Stanek, a manager for the Universal project who was involved in the construction of Tokyo Disneyland in the 1980s. He said the Hwaseong complex represents the largest investment Universal has made in a theme park. "Physically, it will match the size of our facility in Florida and will have a lot of room to expand," Mr. Stanek said. In addition to Orlando, Universal Parks & Resorts operates a park in Hollywood, Calif., and one in Osaka, Japan. It is also developing parks in Singapore and Dubai. The company is a division of NBC Universal, which is a subsidiary of General Electric Co. The park in South Korea will lead to the creation of more than 58,000 jobs, said government officials who signed a development agreement with Universal Parks & Resorts. It aims to draw 10 million visitors a year by late in the next decade. Financing is being provided by several Korean banks, including Korea Development Bank, Shinhan Bank and Korea Investment Securities. The government will build highways and a train connection to the resort. So far, there are two large amusement parks in South Korea, both near Seoul, and several smaller ones in other cities. Those parks generate about $1.2 billion in annual ticket sales and the largest of them, Samsung Group's Everland park, gets about eight million visitors annually. Last month, a real-estate developer announced plans to build a theme park connected to movies of MGM, the U.S. studio now owned by private-equity investors. And the provincial government of Jeju Island, off the southern coast of South Korea, is developing a large Asian-themed park with investors from Hong Kong and the U.S. --Jeongjin Lim contributed to this article Write to Evan Ramstad at evan.ramstad@wsj.com -Yonhap news Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jew Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 New Universal park+Everland Intamin woodie= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIP Psyclone Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 Aw, come on, Universal, show the home park some love! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT3000 Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 What is it with Universal and their new expansion fetish? Especially in Asia? The parks division will be broke by 2015. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jew Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 ^My understanding is that all these new parks are more like the deal OLC has with Disney than Universal owning and operating the parks. Hell, they don't even have majority ownership in USJ anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougr Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 It would be nice if they found some land in California for another IOA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scruffy Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 ^My understanding is that all these new parks are more like the deal OLC has with Disney than Universal owning and operating the parks. Hell, they don't even have majority ownership in USJ anymore. Don't forget USF and IOA are half owned by Universal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freestylenut Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Don't forget USF and IOA are half owned by Universal. Educate me please, who owns the other half? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIP Psyclone Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Don't forget USF and IOA are half owned by Universal. Educate me please, who owns the other half? I believe that would be the Blackstone Group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam06pr Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Dont like hundreds of different groups own USF and IOA. lol. I say build build build and build some more. Maybe they will learn that way and we can get more coasters. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now