Movie lovers in the U.S. soon will not have to travel to California or Florida to visit a Universal Studios theme park. Executives at Universal Parks & Resorts — the theme park arm of entertainment giant NBCUniversal — announced Wednesday a new park planned for Frisco in North Texas.
Alexandra Skores, who covers breaking business news for the Dallas Morning News, said this park will be about a quarter of the size of Universal’s park in Orlando. A timetable for its opening has not been announced.
“It’s about 97 acres. It’s a 300-room hotel,” she said. “You’ll see about four or five different themes with interactive activities for guests in Frisco or beyond that to come over and experience.”
Skores said there are no details available yet for which themes will be included in the park.
“I think you can expect some similar characters to what you see in Orlando, but this park in particular is geared towards children 3 to 9,” she said. “They’re really trying to target younger families here. So you might see some more younger generation-type characters.”
The park is part of the $10 billion Fields development, which will also house the Professional Golfers’ Association of America headquarters and a golf resort that the PGA is calling the largest resort in the country.
Skores said Frisco city officials are touting the economic impact of the new park, though residents have expressed some concerns about traffic.
In addition to local impact, Skores emphasized the cultural significance of Texas getting such a high-profile theme park.
“It’s always been rumored, for a very long time now, that Universal or Disney or one of these large theme parks would take a look at Texas,” she said. “So I think it’s pretty historic in the sense of its magnitude, to have something like this presence in Texas. We’ve only got in our DFW area the Six Flags Over Texas. And so now the competition is real there. We’re going to have to see how Six Flags pairs itself up with all of the traffic that’s going to come to Universal and PGA.”
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