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New Park in Houston Area (Grand Texas Theme Park)


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  • 2 weeks later...

This was posted on the Grand Texas official Facebook page about their wooden rollercoaster...

 

We have designated an engineer design firm for the wood coaster. I can only say "you will be pleased." The second coaster is still under negotiation and probably will not be settled for several months.

 

I really hope this is RMC. I mean... what other contenders do they have? Is a GCI or Intamin pre-fab possible? The teaser photo is El Toro -ish...

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Have any of you seen their website? Screamscape updated today with a link to their list of attractions, so check that out. If the pictures are accurate, Timber! (the woodie) will be an Intamin Prefab and Widowmaker (The major steel coaster) will be a Vekoma death machine.

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  • 2 months later...

From Grand Texas Theme Park's Facebook today.

.We hope that everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July! Be on the lookout for fireworks of a different kind next week.....BIG NEWS on the horizon for Grand Texas!

 

I believe this is the announcement of the land purchase and the start date of construction. Houston might actually get a theme park.

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http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2013/07/developers-close-on-land-for-new-caney-theme-park/?cmpid=businesshcat

Developers announced Monday the purchase of a roughly 600-acre piece of land in New Caney for the Grand Texas Theme Park and Big Rivers Water Park. The attraction would bring a Texas-themed amusement park, water park, equestrian center and retail center that aimes to fill a void left by the former Astro World.

 

A group of investors purchased the overgrown, heavily wooded land between US 59 and Texas Highway 242 this month. Construction is slated to begin by the end of the year with a projected completion by 2015.

 

“We are extremely pleased to reach a major milestone in the birth of Grand Texas,” said developer Monty Galland. “We couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to bring unique attraction to visitors in the Houston area.”

 

Chuck Hendrix, CEO of Innovation Leisure Partners, the group that is to manage the park, said Houston is the most under-served market for amusement parks in the United States.

 

“This is a huge, huge market,” said Hendrix, a former Six Flags executive who managed Astro World. “Never before have you had a major theme park depart a market and then be gone for six years with nothing to replace it.”

 

There are also unrelated plans for the dinosaur-themed Earth Quest, only three miles away, in the works. The project has received millions in sales tax revenue bonds.

 

Hendrix said Grand Texas has not received any public money at this point.

 

Frank McCrady, president and CEO of the East Montgomery County Improvement District, said Grand Texas will be allowed to utilize a “venue or gate tax.” The customers will be charged a tax at that gate and the developers will be able to take to to 10 percent to help recoup costs, McCrady said.

 

It will also be allowed to have a parking tax fee to use to build additional parking facilities, he said in a recent interview.

 

McCrady said Grand Texas could create 300 to 400 ancillary jobs. He does not see the new park as a conflict with Earth Quest. He compared the two parks to Knott’s Berry Farm and Disney Land in California. In this scenario, Earth Quest would be Disney Land, and Grand Texas is Knott’s Berry.

 

Hendrix would not go into specifics on the cost of the projects in a recent interview, other than saying it would be “well into nine figures” and that the price tag is a moving target. Galland told the Chronicle in February, however, that the cost of the water park, theme park, amphitheater and paintball arena would cost $119 million. The other developments, which include the retail area that can house restaurants and hotels, will add $95 million to the overall cost.

 

Developers project first year attendance to be around 665,000 to eventually reach about 1.8 million after several years.

 

-Cindy Horswell contributed to this report

 

 

Sounds like Houston will finally get a theme park.

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"Developers hope an empty, heavily wooded plot of land in New Caney will transform into a thriving entertainment district by 2015- complete with a theme park, water park and a new dining and music scene and more elaborate attractions.

 

Construction will begin on the Grand Texas Theme Park in October to be ready for a grand opening in March 2015 if all goes according to plan, said Monty Galland, a pre-development manager for the project.

 

Developers and officials in Montgomery County will close by the end of April on land on State Highway 242 and U.S. Highway 59, about 15 miles from the Woodlands and 10 miles north of Kingwood.

 

The cost of the water park, theme park, amphitheater and paintball arena, which will be supported by Galland's group, will cost $119 million. The other developments, which include restaurant and hotel areas, will add $95 million to the overall cost. The project was discussed at a Feb. 14 board meeting of the East Montgomery County Improvement District. Developers project first year attendance to be around 665,000 to eventually reach about 1.8 million after several years.

 

"It's designed to focus on the residents of Houston," Galland said. "There is no large-scale park north of the Interstate 10 freeway. ... We really feel like there is a void in this area."

 

Galland said the idea is larger than a theme park and conceives of an entertainment district, complete with a water park, an amphitheater, a baseball stadium and a shopping and dining area."

 

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/New-Houston-area-theme-park-under-development-4293888.php

 

supposedly, this park will open in 2015 but I can bet that it wont.

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^You are correct about the coaster, but what about the funding for the entertainment district, complete with a water park, an amphitheater, a baseball stadium? The baseball stadium and amphitheater would cost a big fortune.

 

It's probably going to be a very basic baseball statium. Not your MLB style stadium. An amphitheater is actually something you could easily build as well. A lot of the attractions out side of the park could be open in phases as well. Just buying the land is a huge step for a park. If they start construction soon, we don't have harsh winters so they could work on it all year and have it open by 2015.

 

Let's just see what happens when the bulldozers come.

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During my last post in February, I was feeling a bit sketical about whether or not this new park planned for Houston will ever be built or not. Now, lo and behold, it looks like they have received the GREEN LIGHT to begin construction and hoping for a 2015 opening date.

 

Now while everyone else is speculating whether or not this park will actually open, my concern is what rides will the park have? While I'm thinking that some will be brand, spanking new; others I feel might be used rides that once ran in another park or on the state fair circuit as a cost-cutting method and to better fill up the park. Mewonders what they would do, but this is only speculation at this point. We'll wait and see.

 

"BY THE WAY, DON'T BURN ME!!!"

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More news on the park

 

houston.culturemap.com/news/realestate/07-10-13-astroworld-times-six-construction-on-new-houston-theme-park-begins-and-its-size-is-already-expanding/

 

 

One can almost hear the roar of a roller coaster on the New Caney property where Grand Texas Theme Park will soon sprawl . . . but don't get ahead of yourself — it's just the hum of bulldozers

 

Site work is already underway on the heavily-wooded land off of Highway 59 and FM 242, according to the Business Journal. After several years of looking for the right spot, investors finalized the purchase from IBC Bank as previously reported by CultureMap.

 

"I'm the guy that's remembered as the one that tore down the Texas Cyclone. I'd like to leave a different legacy, actually."

What exactly will take form over the next two years remains to be determined. Chuck Hendrix, a former AstroWorld general manager who will run Grand Texas under the banner of Innovation Leisure Partners, told the HBJ that the park's amenities — which already include a water park, several hotels and a petting zoo — are "expanding daily."

 

"I'm the guy that's remembered as the one that tore down the Texas Cyclone," Hendrix said in an interview with KPRC. "I'd like to leave a different legacy, actually."

 

Brae Burn Construction Company has been selected to work on the theme park's next phase, which will break ground this fall for an anticipated completion in the spring of 2015. Dallas-based GHA Architects, led by principal Bob Runyon, is the designer designer on the project.

 

"We have enough acreage to keep us busy for a while," Hendrix said of the 640-acre plot — about six times the size of AstroWorld's footprint. Construction will take place in phases over the next 10 years.

 

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Unlike other projects you don't hear a lot about financing. They seem to have it or at least not letting on they don't yet. Things are looking pretty positive at the moment for this to at least get off the ground,

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  • 1 month later...

"I'm the guy that's remembered as the one that tore down the Texas Cyclone," Hendrix said in an interview with KPRC. "I'd like to leave a different legacy, actually."

 

Hmmm... How would you leave a different legacy... by rebuilding it!!! Now i know that's not the case but how awesome would it be if it was. Nonetheless, can't wait for a new park to finally open in my area. Houston greatly needs one and i've always thought the only way to truly ope one would be to start small and expand over time. Earthquest was too big for it to work, a great idea but too much at once.

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