Theme parks back on track

Construction of the IMG Worlds of Adventure (IMGWOA), City of Arabia’s theme park venture, is moving ahead for an anticipated opening next year. Installation of the roof structure — the space frame for the Cartoon Network Zone — is underway and will be completed in a few weeks. On completion, IMGWOA will offer 1.5 million square metres of indoor entertainment space.

“With the structural columns in place, we have entered a new phase of development. IMG Worlds of Adventure is one of the most anticipated developments in the region, offering a number of world firsts that will position Dubai and the UAE on the global map as a themed entertainment capital,” says an official from the Ilyas and Mustafa Galadari Group (IMG), the developer of City of Arabia.

The theme park is located on Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road (formerly Emirates Road), not far from Global Village. Featuring the Marvel, Cartoon Network, Lost Valley and IMG Entertainment Zones, IMGWOA will add its own flavour of world-class entertainment to Dubailand, Dubai’s ambitious mega-entertainment project that will feature the largest collection of theme parks in the world.

Surprise opening

Stefan Zwanzger, who reviews and rates theme parks in his website The Theme Park Guy, says the announcement is great news to the global amusement and theme-park market. “It’s awesome to finally see some action in Dubailand. It’s been ten years and no theme parks,” he says.

Although IMG says it will be able to launch the park by next year, Zwanzger believes the developer will be hard pushed to get it done on time. “If I were them, I would shoot for a Q1 2015 opening date and then surprise everybody with an earlier opening. That’s much better,” he opines.

While construction of the physical structures to house the entertainment gear is taking place on-site, the amusement rides manufactured abroad are expected to arrive later this year. However, one of the park’s main protagonists — a gigantic dinosaur — has already arrived. It has been overlooking the creation of its new home, Restless Planet, the original concept for City of Arabia’s entertainment facility, for quite some time now.

New name

While the developer made sure that underground infrastructure was in place by 2009, it faced roadblocks outside its control like many other projects and had to adapt to the new market dynamics, resulting in a new completion date and design.

Restless Planet is now called the Lost Valley and broke ground in April. According to the developer, it remains a first-of-its-kind concept with IMG Group as the sole trademark proprietor.