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New Park in Houston Area (Grand Texas Theme Park)


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Is there any new updates on the progress?

 

Not that I've seen, but the facebook page of Adventure Pointe, the other proposed Houston area park, was updated right before Christmas to show that they were at DanielsWoodland for theming purposes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just happened upon this on CNN:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/04/travel/exciting-attractions-opening-2015/index.html

 

I still kind of wonder if this is pie-in-the-sky type stuff. Supposedly, they're going to open Memorial Day 2015. So far, if you look at their Facebook page or even posts here, it sounds like the only thing they have done is clearing some land and maybe doing some underground utility work.

 

I swear I've heard about this project for nearly 10 years but the oldest reference, from this thread, seems to be 2009.

 

I hope it happens but it seems like they ought to be way further along than clearing some land if they're going to open in 2015 (especially by Memorial Day).

 

I think Houston would be a great city to have a large park in based on it's size, the surrounding area (you can pull people from deeper in Texas as well as over to Louisiana (New Orleans) and maybe even as far as Mississippi). Astroworld didn't close because it wasn't popular. It closed because Six Flags executives were being bone heads for years and got into trouble.

 

Still, for as long as I've heard about this park coming, it really does seem like a lot of wishful thinking. It's on the order of the age-old rumor of, "Disney is eyeing Texas for a third theme park!" (which wouldn't be a bad idea, IMO - I've just heard it nearly my entire life).

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I don't think it's possible to build a brand new park before Memorial Day and get all the testing, licenses, decoration etc ready. Especially this park looks like a very well-themed one. I hope they can take their time and open up a great new park.

 

That article failed to mention the fact that the theme park wasn't slated to open until 2016. The water park, RV, and sports parks are what were supposed to open in 2015. Sounds like everything will be pushed back another year, which is OK as long as they keep pushing things along. They seem to be chugging along with the clearing and work on the RV park, but I would like to hear something about their plans for the water park. At this point it's obvious it's not going to open in 2015, so they need to get ahead of the PR curve and hold an "official groundbreaking" + release some concepts to keep people from being anxious. Hopefully this will be the final delay.

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From the latest news I heard from the park. They still plan to open the water park this year. The waterpark is not going to be huge so it's possible but they have a lot of work to do. I see the theme park opening in 2017 at the earliest. But who knows, there could be a lot going on behind those trees.

 

Grand Texas seems to think they are still on schedule. From their FB - We are very excited about 2015 and cannot wait to see the progress unfold. We are thrilled to have made CNN's list but, to clear up any confusion, the Theme Park is scheduled for 2016!

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I don't know what they have done so far for the water park or sports complex, but I could maybe see them opening the campground by Memorial Day. The only buildings they would really need to construct would be the main office, bath houses, and a few others for entertainment. The rest might just be laying utilities, making stone dirt roads and campsites.

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Their Facebook states "We will have a public announcement in February with updates and information." I'm sure its going to say "HERE YE HERE YE, MCDONALDS AND STARBUCKS HAVE BEEN CHOSEN AS TWO FASTFOOD LOCATIONS OUTSIDE THE PARK." and that is it...

 

In truth I'm going to guess everything gets delayed again but they might give us a layout for the water park. Oh well, at least there will be some news. Glass in half full, well 1/4, but progress guys, its progress.

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Here is an update:

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2015/02/24/motorsports-complex-at-grand-texas-to-break-ground.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2015-02-24&u=WjoHmd3JJZYW1RpKX8uFUg0bf0bf3e&t=1424889313&page=2

 

In summary, Grand Texas Operating Co. sold off a piece of the land (as planned) to Speedsportz, who is building the kart racing track.

 

Not a huge development, but it means another piece of this huge project is moving forward. I know we're only really interested in the theme and water park, but all this stuff is tied together and with two parts of the project firmly off the ground and rolling it means the other plans are still alive and moving forward, however slowly.

 

No sign of that February update though... could come out tomorrow, but at this point it seems like they might just gloss over it. I'm a little worried that theme park piece of all of this will take forever to actually get off the ground and might end up being replaced with something like an outlet mall, but I think the water park will definitely get built at some point soon. It seems like they're waiting for more people to buy into the project by buying the hotel and retail plots and getting started on those, but that takes momentum from the other pieces of the project... Seems like a chicken and egg situation, but the RV park/Speedsportz combo will give them something to work with.

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  • 3 weeks later...

^ I don't think you should loose hope, most big projects like this area bit delayed before being finalized.

 

Selling the land for the gokart track is also showing that they are actually working on this.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Every few weeks I do some searches and visit a few sites to see if I can find any updates on any of the proposed theme parks for Houston. Just now, I noticed Grand Texas changed their website design and of course did not mention this on Facebook. http://grandtx.net/

 

They added the first site plan for their water park. Although, its impossible to zoom in on.

waterpark-rendering1.jpg.2e26271046b7e932d30556ae24521317.jpg

Big Rivers Waterpark

 

They also added this post just two days ago. Not sure if its just for the RV park or the whole Grand Texas District.

Engineering is Compete Apr 3, 2015 Well, it took longer that we’d hoped, but the (re)engineering of the site is finally complete and construction will start soon. It’s going to be great!

color-map-GTSED.jpg.1c4511353ca724424c26adf581df438c.jpg

New Grand Texas District

 

Take this info however you like, I just thought it was interesting. Perhaps they will update us on all of it soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There's been some progress here. Water park is supposedly on track for a 2016 opening now. See the updated rendering below.

 

Apparently they had to revise a lot of their traffic and drainage engineering plans. I know from first hand experience how long that can take and am surprised they weren't delayed even more. They just posted some new photos today of a tiny area of clearing, probably within the RV park. Hopefully this means we'll be seeing a lot more action soon.

 

Not the most experienced or PR-minded developer I've watched, but things seem to be chugging along roughly as one would expect. The "fans" are still gratingly annoying. I understand why they don't want to draw attention to their struggles, but I wish someone would tell their doom-and-gloom facebook fans to shut up. It must be part of Texas culture - they think that if everything doesn't go exactly as expected then they must be getting scammed somehow, even if they can't articulate how. FYI, to my knowledge no tax money has gone to this project. They may or may not get some tax breaks after development is truly underway according to some articles from last year.

11156294_10152656547966541_5767631584487824960_n.jpg.30c8d9fa3e655e147b18bca9db7d6c0d.jpg

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^Its not Texas culture, its the internet in general. Declining by degrees. It also doesn't help that numerous projects have been announced and faded within the state over the last many years so many are speculative. I'm personally still reserved on whether they get the theme park portion going, but no doubts the ball fields, RV park, and water park will get done. The ball fields will bring in huge money and visiting teams will love the RV park and camping grounds.

 

But when it comes to brass tax I don't know if a mega theme park would do well considering most games are played from sun up to sometimes sun down and players will be pooped and not care about rides. (I'm reminded of Celebration City) Now, if they went with something along the lines of Mt. O, minus the crap maintenance and operations, then I could see the rides park flourish.

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  • 1 month later...

Finally, a substantial update: http://impactnews.com/houston-metro/tomball-magnolia/grand-texas-developer-reveals-updated-theme-park-plans/

 

Sounds like what I expected, but it's great to finally get a clear message from the horse's mouth. I'm really curious as to what happened with the original engineering firm. Sounds like they went cheap originally and got someone without the proper qualifications and experience. Having to completely re-do the traffic and layout of the entire property is pretty huge, and then finding out that the power grid isn't big enough? That's a lot of wasted time and money.

 

Sounds like things are really rolling along now that the major issues behind the scenes have been ironed out.

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Well then, this is interesting. "The first phase of the theme park will span 71 acres and will offer one wooden rollercoaster engineered by the same company that produced the Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California, Galland said."

 

http://impactnews.com/houston-metro/tomball-magnolia/grand-texas-developer-reveals-updated-theme-park-plans/

 

If this is true, I don't care if they wait until 2020, this will be awesome! Sorry I'm on my mobile.

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