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Grapevine Mills to get Legoland Discovery Centre

Reprinted from Star-Telegraph

A $12 million Legoland Discovery Centre, an attraction centered on the popular children’s building blocks, will be coming to Grapevine Mills mall, the city said Tuesday.

The only other U.S. Legoland Discovery Centre opened last year outside Chicago. Legoland Discovery Centre and the Legoland theme park in California are developments of U.K.-based Merlin Entertainment Group, reportedly the world’s second-biggest operator of visitor attractions.

The Grapevine City Council and the board of the Tax Increment Financing District No. 1, which was established several years ago for the mall, approved a two-phase, $1 million incentive package for the project. Merlin Entertainment will receive $500,000 when it completes the facility and $500,000 when it completes an accompanying 10,000-square-foot miniature golf facility made from Legos.

Construction should begin in June, with an anticipated opening in March 2011, the company said. The facility will occupy 40,000 square feet currently being used by Woodward Skatepark, which is across from the AMC Theatres. The golf facility will go in the outdoor plaza between the theater and the mall.

Simon Property Group owns the mall. Its local business representative could not be reached for comment.

Legoland Discovery Centres are geared to kids ages 3-12. Visitors often spend between two and three hours walking through the center and taking part in activities. Kids learn how Legos are built before venturing on to build with the blocks, see displays and ride Lego rides. There’s a cafe and rooms for birthday parties. Admission is $15 for children and $19 for adults. Annual passes are $40.

Merlin Entertainment said it chose Grapevine because the city is considered a “popular destination for family visitors.”

Glenn Earlam, a managing director with Merlin, said in a statement that “the inclusion of a quality leisure attraction like the Legoland Discovery Centre will . . . deliver significant incremental business to both the mall, to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and greater region as a whole.”

Grapevine Mayor William Tate said the project “will become one of the most unique and best family attractions in Texas.” City officials estimated that it could draw more than 300,000 visitors a year.

Legos, colorful snap-together plastic building blocks, are made by Lego Group, a private Danish firm.

The first Discovery Centre opened in Berlin in 2007. There is one in Germany, and a location is expected to open next year in Manchester, England, according to the company’s Web site. Atlanta might also add a location, according to media reports.

Merlin operates 59 attractions, six hotels and two holiday villages in 13 countries, including Madame Tussauds in New York, Washington, Las Vegas and Hollywood, Calif.

A Lego Education Center in Southlake, a venture of Lego and Pitsco Inc, is not part of Merlin.

It offers classes and educational activities geared to kids 3-12 using Legos to teach math, science, engineering, technology and art.

Tags: amusement, Dallas, entertainment, Grapevine, lego, Legoland, shopping mall

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.