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LEGOLAND Scouts city for ‘Discovery Center’
Friday, October 23, 2009
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Lisa R. Schoolcraft Staff Writer
LEGOLAND plans to enter the Atlanta market, brick by tiny plastic brick.
The company that builds and operates LEGLAND theme parks is scouting four sites
in metro Atlanta for its LEGOLAND Discovery Center concept, described as an
indoor attraction and LEGO retail store, with hopes to open by spring 2011.
There are currently only three LEGOLAND Discovery Centers in the world:
Chicago, and Berlin and Duisburg, Germany.
LEGOLAND’s United Kingdom-based parent company, Merlin Entertainments Group, is
looking at sites in Alpharetta near North Point Mall, Atlantic Station in
Midtown, the downtown area, and the Buckhead area near Phipps Plaza, said Howard
Samuels, national real estate adviser for LEGOLAND and president of Samuels &
Co. Inc. in Los Angeles.
Merlin “is very interested in opening a LEGOLAND Discovery Center in the Atlanta
market,” he said. “We’re very fortunate there are several sites that will work.”
Samuels hopes to select a site in Atlanta by the end of the year.
Inside a 30,000- to 35,000-square-foot LEGOLAND Discovery Center, which is about
the size of a newer Best Buy store, is a 4-D movie theater, a play area, a
Dragon Castle Ride, a Build and Test area, and other interactive stations, all
built with and around the iconic plastic bricks invented by a Danish company.
LEGO is a contraction from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” meaning “play well.”
Merlin Entertainments Group is the world’s No. 2 visitor attraction operator,
and its properties include Madame Tussauds, Sea Life, LEGOLAND theme parks and
LEGOLAND Discovery Centers, and The London Eye.
The company would not comment on any Atlanta plans because it has a policy of
not commenting on any project until it is approved by its board and has obtained
agreements with all key stakeholders, said spokeswoman Sally Ann Wilkinson.
But part of Merlin’s growth strategy is to open each year three to four “midway”
attractions, which are Merlin’s short-stay, indoor, city-center attractions like
Madame Tussauds, Sea Life and LEGOLAND Discovery Centers, she said.
The latest of those announcements include a new Sea Life in Phoenix and a
LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Manchester, England, Wilkinson said.
“We have gone on record saying that the USA is a key market for expansion for
Merlin, for all our attraction brands,” she said.
Manchester’s LEGOLAND Discovery Center will likely be the fourth of that concept
to open, with Atlanta’s being the fifth or sixth center to open, Samuels said. A
center is also planned for East Rutherford, N.J., as part of a theme park still
under construction.
Building fun
The LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Schaumburg, Ill., about 30 miles west of
Chicago, opened in July 2008 and has “met our visitor volume numbers for the
past year,” said Mike Pastor, attractions manager there. He said he could not
disclose actual visitor numbers.
The Chicago center is about 32,000 square feet and does “a lot of school groups,
other groups and birthday parties,” he said. “It’s not only fun and
entertainment, but also educational.”
Admission prices are $19 for adults and $15 for children, with group discount
rates and annual passes also available, Pastor said.
The retail portion of LEGOLAND Discovery Center is open to the public without
charge, Samuels said.
Like the Chicago center, Atlanta’s LEGOLAND will have a scale-model city
skyline, Samuels said.
LEGO model makers spend five to six months, using 250,000 to 300,000 LEGO
bricks, to recreate a skyline and build the Miniland, he said.
http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/10/26/story1.html
-end of report
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