Just when you thought Las Vegas was done attempting family-friendly theme parks in the Disney / Universal / Cedar Fair / Busch style, along comes this story reporting plans for a $1.1 billion destination resort, complete with an indoor snow park, an indoor/outdoor water park, a casino (of course), two hotels, an events arena, and a multiplex cinema. Brian K. Miller at GlobeSt.com further reports that Las Vegas Wet LLC, the developer, was cofounded by Steve Dooner,
who spent 30 years in development and operations with the likes of Disney, Universal, Paramount Parks, Raging Waters and other theme parks around the world. His work includes brands like Chuck E. Cheese and Discovery Zone, Club Disney, DisneyQuest, ESPNZone, and Universal Studios Japan.
Hmmm, impressive, though if I recall correctly, a lot of "LBE" places had trouble, including Disney’s – Club Disney, DisneyQuest, ESPNZone – though I tend to give the creative types the benefit of the doubt and chalk up the failures to other factors.
As the article notes, LV’s Wet-N-Wild closed in 2004, so there’s a water park void. As for the ski park – I wonder why Walt Disney World Resort doesn’t have one yet? The place seems to have just about everything else.
It looks like a lot of the right people are involved, including Harrison "Buzz" Price and Fred Cochrane, as well as Thinkwell Design and Production. Price is a man who has seen it all and wrote a must-have book, much of which is about why some of these things have worked and why some of them haven’t, and hopefully his involvement will bode well for this project.
And in case someone involved in the project is reading this… if you have a need for a writer with a degree in Thematic Environmental Design, 15 years of theme park operations experience, and over six years of public relations experience (and who is willing to relocate), I know a guy.
Ken,
First let me clarify that Buzz is happily retired, and while I did go to him originally for this project (he and I worked together in the past), he politely advised me to contact his long time associate Fred Cochrane, who we are working with on this.
You are right, there are some troubled waters with LBE concepts, but one that I was involved with in the late 70’s to early 80’s, Chuck E. Cheese, seems to be doing well (ok, perhaps more of a restaurant…). Plus, the ESPNZones are doing well.
We are very excited about this project, and give us some credit as we have quite a few Disney and Universal alumni on the team. So stop by the website and drop us a note if you are so inclined. There are a queue of additional announcements forthcoming that you may find intriguing.
–Steven
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