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US News:
Arizona - (8/25/09) Merlin Entertainment announced that they will build a new $15million Sea Life Aquarium at the Arizona Mills Mall in the Phoenix / Tempe area. Once approved by the city of Tempe, this will become only the second Sea Life Aquarium in the USA when it opens in Spring 2010. The Phoenix Sea Life Aquarium will be a 26,000 square feet development with 12 different habitat zones housing over 30 separate display tanks for more than 5,000 creatures ranging from shoreline marine life such as starfish and crabs to larger species such as sharks and rays.
(8/6/09) The developers behind Waveyard have asked local officials for a two year extension to get the project done.
California - (11/10/09) California gets all the cool toys it seems, as some madman has built a custom fleet of 8 street legal bumper cars made from old retired ride cars and modern engineering know-how. Check them out here, and click on the right arrow in the lower corner to page through the article showing off all 8 cars as they take a drive out around the greater San Diego area.
Florida - (12/15/09) In a shocking story, the local news reports that Panama City’s Miracle Strip park will return to life in March 2010… kind of. While Miracle Strip closed down for good back in 2004, a new much smaller version will open in Pier Park which will include the old Miracle Strip Carousel (which opened last summer) as well as a few other small rides saved from the park.
Georgia - (1/18/10) Over the years, residents in the South-East may have heard about a proposed park concept called Steamboat City to be built to the north of Jacksonville, FL, across the border in Georgia. According to this news article, the on and off again development concept may be hitting the end of the road now, as a bank has now announced that they will have a foreclosure sale on the 900 acre property sometime next month.
(10/27/09) The local news reports that Merlin Entertainment is looking around the Atlanta area at sites to build a Legoland Discovery Center attraction as well as a possible Madame Tussauds wax museum.
(10/20/09) A new pirate themed attraction seems to be planning on dropping anchor in Atlanta’s Centennial Park area. According to the local news a local businessman has purchased the Atlanta Samaritan Health Center to build a $2 million “pirate museum” attraction called Pirate World. Sounds… odd… I’ve never heard of a Pirate Museum before. Could be interesting… could be boring… but the important question is, will they have free rum tasting? If so… how far away if the World of Coke? You could just run back and forth all day long…
Illinois - (12/28/09) Fans of Chicago’s former Kiddieland amusement park may be interested to find that the park’s famous neon sign is currently up for auction on Ebay. They’re asking to start the bidding just shy of $9k, but so far they’ve had no takers.
(12/21/09) According to a brief note in the local news, the Key Lime Cove waterpark resort filed for Chapt. 11 Bankruptcy this past week. The resort will remain open and not be sold, as this is expected to be a debt restructure measure.
Mississippi - (12/23/09) A reader tells us that they received a letter from the Geyser Falls waterpark in Chocktaw, Mississippi that informed them that since they are “planning a number of upgrades to the water park that will result in the closure of the park throughout the 2010 season.” While no details have come forward about these upgrades, our reader believes that money problems may be the true cause here as the waterpark is part of a casino group who has already apparently taken the drastic step of shutting down one of their casino’s during the week as a budget cutting measure. I’ve got to admit that they could be on to something as I’ve seen an entire waterpark built from scratch in less than a year so I can’t imagine what kind of ‘upgrades’ would require a waterpark to be closed for a year and a half straight.
 New Jersey - (1/29/10) A deadline is now fast approaching the Xanadu projects in The Meadowlands it seems, as the governor’s office has now demanded that the developer either finish the stalled project or hand it over to the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority who owns the land under it.
New York - (1/29/10) According to this article, Zamperla’s new version of Coney Island will revive the old Luna Park name. The original Luna Park opened at Coney Island back in 1903 and closed down after suffering two larges fires in 1944.
(1/21/10) The city has named Zamperla USA as the operator of the new amusement park facility planned for Coney Island. According to this article, the plan submitted by Zamperla included the redevelopment of all thee land parcels. Apparently the city would like the first phase of this development actually up and running by this summer, so things are going to have to move quickly.
(12/4/09) The plan to rebuild Coney Island just hit another bump as a group is now trying to get the city’s plans thrown out because the amusement park is too small and the site shouldn’t be walled off by several 20 story tall high rise structures.
(11/13/09) The city has decided to spend $95.6 million to buy 7 acres of land in Coney Island for future development from Joe Sitt.
Ohio - (11/9/09) While I don’t have any details to share, I have been contacted by someone who claims to be in the know about the future plans for Geauga Lake’s Big Dipper. They tell me that the owner does have plans to bring the coaster back to life somewhere, but from the sound of things, the exact details have yet to be finalized. Anyone know more?
Oklahoma - (12/18/09) Ever wonder just what happened to all of the old Bell’s Amusement Park rides? According to this slideshow many of them appear to have simply been put down in some kind of outdoor storage area, in plain view no less.
(10/20/09) After not hearing a peep for so long about Bell’s plans to rebuild in a new location, I had figured that the economy had just killed any dreams they may still have had. However an interview with Robbie Bell posted last month claims that they have found four different possible locations, but right now it’s all a matter of getting the money to rebuild the park.
South Carolina - (2/8/10) Pictures of some new ride hardware in Myrtle Beach have been posted to the Discover Myrtle Beach website. It seems that the new ride is expected to be a stand-alone attraction set up somewhere along the main strip (Ocean Blvd). Looking at the pieces however, I’m not quite sure just what it will be. It doesn’t match up with the arm style of an S&S Screamin’ Swing or a Gravity Works Skyscraper or Zamperal Turbo Force or any similar ride that I’ve seen. Anyone else recognize it?
(10/19/09) A new WonderWorks attraction is on the way to Myrtle Beach’s Broadway At the Beach. Like the versions built in Orlando and Pigeon Forge, it will be enclosed in a large building that appears to have been built upside-down.
Tennessee - (1/31/10) Sad news for those hoping to save Memphis’ Zippin Pippin wooden coaster, hailed as being Elvis’ favorite. Demolition crews began to take down the closed coaster a couple of days ago after having sat silent for the past four years. Read more here.
(11/23/09) Locals still holding out hope that Libertyland’s old Zippin Pippin coaster may be saved, were upset last week when they learned that a demolition crew had removed a small piece of the coaster. They say that it was done simply to conduct tests upon the structure to see if the ride is indeed salvageable or not.
(9/21/09) Take a look inside the former Libertyland park at Coaster101, with many good close up views of the Zippin Pippin as it is quickly being taken over by the local landscaping.
Texas - (12/17/09) Still wondering just what will become of the former site of Astroworld in Houston? Yeah… so is everyone because according to this article tons of offers and deals have come and gone to build on the property that Six Flags sold off, but to date no one has been able to finalize the deal. According to one spokesperson, “For the right price, we'd pretty much sell it anybody,” which is just sad, because they could have just left Astroworld up and running all this time.
(10/29/09) Plans to build a Legoland Discovery Center attraction in the Grapevine Mills mall were announced. Construction will begin in mid 2010 and open by March 2011.
Washington - (1/12/10) News Plus News posted a fairly detailed story about the renovation of the Puyallup Coaster last month. Check it out.
(1/11/10) A reader has sent in a few pictures showing off the wooden Coaster Thrill Ride at Puyallup Fair (Washington) in the process of having a large section of
it rebuilt from the ground up.
(12/21/09) Sad times for Seattle area locals as the old Fun Forest rides and attractions are now being taken down and removed. The Windstorm coaster is already coming down to prepare it for a trip to a new home somewhere in Texas while the bumper cars and kiddieland will remain through to Labor Day 2010 before being removed.
Wisconsin - (2/3/10) First Bay Beach is rumored to have bought the Starliner from Cypress Gardens, now this article claims that they are looking into buying up the pieces of the Zippin Pippin from Libertyland. Given the rumored cost of refurbishing the Pippin compared to buying the operational Starliner, I have serious doubts they will go for the Pippin. If anything, I’m surprised they havn’t looked into buying up the Thunder Eagle that used to be in Pigeon Forge. Last I heard it was bought and delivered to Canada where they were told they couldn’t build it after all. I never did hear if it survived that trip or if it was turned into firewood. Anyone know?
(2/1/10) Take a fun winter tour of the Wisconsin Dells area, complete with a look at the various waterparks (indoor and out), Mt. Olympus, local Ski resorts and more all posted to the Winconsin Dells Fansite.
(10/2/09) Bay Beach got approval from the mayor to begin their quest to bring a new family sized wooden coaster to the park, looking for something with around 2,500 feet of track. This is about double the length of the closed Triple Hurricane sitting at Cypress Gardens as well as the yet to be named junior woodie going into Quassy next season.
(9/29/09) The Bay Beach Amusement Park in Green Bay, WI has announced that they are looking to buy a new family friendly roller coaster for the 2011 season. Adding a coaster is at the top of their list of wanted new attractions. They have yet to decide if they will seek out only a good used ride or perhaps buy a brand new one.
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