Rethinking Regency Mall

[FSBA]

Ashame it couldn't just be turned into a casino. Clearly gambling is already doing good business in the area.

[I-10east]

Im one that will admit, without an once of shame that I still love Regency and the area, and want to see the mall bounce back. Being a 80's baby, I have ALOT of memories Regency Square in its hey days. Just running around being a kid, movie hopping (paying for one movie, and seeing three LOL). Lots of fun. I hope they do something with it

Yall are getting me all nostalgic and sh*t, LOL. I remember when Regency had three video game stores (Electronic Boutique, Babbage's, and Game Stop) and either two or three arcades, with Camelot's being across the street in Regency Court and Tilt being in the mall, fun times as a kid. Screw Reg being torn down, and reinvisioned into something else; Here's to RSM's new renaissance still as a mall!!!

[I-10east]

Gaylord's Opryland Nashville is a good example of a resort that gave up the theme park roots and focused on convention center work and large group hosting.

Thrill seekers in Nashville are still yearning for a theme park too. There really isn't any theme/amusement parks in the entire state besides Dollywood and Lake Winnie (in Georgia) near Chattanooga. 

[Charles Hunter]

Ashame it couldn't just be turned into a casino. Clearly gambling is already doing good business in the area.

Are there any Timucua Native Americans still around?  Make an old tribal claim?

[iMarvin]

Wild Adventures: 166 acres including zoo, 116 acres w/o zoo...

There really is plenty of room there already. And When you consider the amount of traffic that drives near there (295, Arlington Expressway, Atlantic Blvd, Southside Blvd) it kind of seems like a no brainer as far as being pretty centralized and well connected. Bush Gardens is basically built in the middle of a neighborhood in Tampa off of 75. It's fed by a similar road conglomeration as well.

Yep. And a nice regional amusement park would help redevelop the entire area. A Six Flags/Cedar Fair type park would attract people from all over Florida, SE Georgia, and southern South Carolina. There's nothing like it in Florida.

I could understand some people wanting Regency to stay around as a shopping destination because of its history, but like the article said, there's just too much retail in the area. It can't all be successful. Something new to the region would refresh that entire neighborhood.

[thelakelander]

When I moved to Jax in 2003, one of the first design projects I worked on was a proposed theme park in Brunswick, GA that was going to be called Steamboat City. 

For millions of motorists that stream along Interstate 95 every year, there are stretches in Georgia where the only scenery is pines and palmettos.

By the summer of 2006, developers said Wednesday, there will be a $150 million theme park on 800 acres north of Brunswick that will prompt many to pull off the exit and stay a while.

Steamboat City, a theme park planned at Exit 42 north of Brunswick, could open by the summer of 2006. The park would include rides, including a roller coaster, shows and displays of coastal Georgia's history and culture. Provided by WG Pitts Co.

William G. Pitts, president of WG Pitts Co. of Jacksonville, and officials from Powers Design of Ponte Vedra Beach announced their plans, including rides, shows and displays of coastal Georgia's history and culture.

Steamboat City is planned at Exit 42, about midway between Savannah and Jacksonville and is designed have a variety of family attractions from the relaxed (a petting zoo, horse-drawn trolley and railroad) to the thrilling (a haunted plantation and roller coaster), the developers said.

full article: http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/040804/geo_15293887.shtml

We got pretty far in design and even attended a theme park convention to hook up with ride and gaming manufacturers and suppliers. However, the financial numbers never came together to get it off the ground. The property was threatened with foreclosure in 2012. I'm not sure how it all turned out but the land is still undeveloped today.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. - A Dollywood-style theme park developers had sought to build in northern Glynn County for over a decade may be gone for good.

Park Avenue Bank, which has headquarters in Valdosta, announced in a Jan. 9 newspaper ad it would hold a foreclosure sale next month on the 900-acre parcel owned by Steamboat City Development Co.

Will Pitts, a Jacksonville developer and general partner for the company, hopes it won't come to that.

"Our hope is the foreclosure won't be executed," Pitts said. "They just filed the formal notice that they're required to under Georgia statute ... The note was due."

Plans for the ambitious theme park stretch back to 1998, when Mutual of Omaha's Jim Fowler first envisioned a free-roaming animal park for what was then 2,000 acres at the Georgia 99-Interstate 95 interchange.

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-01-17/story/steamboat_city_project_in_south_georgia_may_be_stalled_for_good#ixzz2rT7Cweuh

With that said, how many theme parks have been built from scratch in the US over the last 10 years?

[jaxjaguar]

With that said, how many theme parks have been built from scratch in the US over the last 10 years?

16 if you count every amusement park opened in the US over the last 10 years... This includes places that only have 1 ride though. If you base it on places with more than 1 ride it would be:

2004: Amusement Park Drive In (Laurel, Montana, USA), 2 Rollercoasters
2006: Western Playland (Sunland Park, New Mexico, USA), 3 Rollercoasters
2009: O.D. Pavilion and Amusement Park (North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA), 2 Rollercoasters
2010: Miracle Strip Pier Park (Panama City Beach, Florida, USA), 2 Rollercoasters
2011: Legoland (Legoland, Florida, USA), 4 Rollercoasters

[I-10east]

^^^ I'll call many of those places 'family fun centers' rather than 'amusement parks' (with one kiddie coaster, and mini golf, etc). 'Amusement Park Drive In' is basically a family fun center with one operational kiddie coaster (the other bigger coaster operating from 2009-2011) If that's the case, then Jax Beach has an 'amusement park' (Adventure Landing, with the Wacky Worm coaster).

[jaxjaguar]

Technically Adventure Landing is an amusement park ^_^

http://rcdb.com/5821.htm

[I-10east]

When I moved to Jax in 2003, one of the first design projects I worked on was a proposed theme park in Brunswick, GA that was going to be called Steamboat City.

I was very disappointed when that project unraveled. If Jax was to get an amusement park, I would like to see it in an similar highway-side spot right by I-10 or I-95; Now you're talking about instantly appealing to US interstate traffic, along with the local crowd. 

[thelakelander]

With that said, how many theme parks have been built from scratch in the US over the last 10 years?

16 if you count every amusement park opened in the US over the last 10 years... This includes places that only have 1 ride though. If you base it on places with more than 1 ride it would be:

2004: Amusement Park Drive In (Laurel, Montana, USA), 2 Rollercoasters
2006: Western Playland (Sunland Park, New Mexico, USA), 3 Rollercoasters
2009: O.D. Pavilion and Amusement Park (North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA), 2 Rollercoasters
2010: Miracle Strip Pier Park (Panama City Beach, Florida, USA), 2 Rollercoasters
2011: Legoland (Legoland, Florida, USA), 4 Rollercoasters

Out of this list, Legoland Florida is the only bonafide amusement/theme park. All of the others are essentially what gets set up at the fairgrounds and Regency Square's parking lot every year.

I grew up less than five miles from Legoland Florida and purchased deeply discounted annual passes for my kids the first year it was open.  It wasn't built from scratch.  They kept and repurposed most of Cypress Gardens including a rollercoaster, the water park, the "main street" area, Island-In-The-Sky, the botanical gardens and the water ski pavilions.  Now that I think of it, all they really did is add more rides, reconfigure the parking lot/entrance and a ton of landscaping.

[I-10east]

Technically Adventure Landing is an amusement park ^_^

http://rcdb.com/5821.htm

Okay true. A Family Entertainment Center is technically a 'small amusement park' but please don't use that term very loosely. When you're going to a FEC, expect to see laser tag, arcade, mini golf, and go-carts, moreso than a looping steel coaster, a dark ride, and a looping starship. Hell, Boomers down there in South Florida had a large wooden coaster (Dania Beach Hurricane) and it was known as a FEC.

[thelakelander]

When I moved to Jax in 2003, one of the first design projects I worked on was a proposed theme park in Brunswick, GA that was going to be called Steamboat City.

I was very disappointed when that project unraveled. If Jax was to get an amusement park, I would like to see it in an similar highway-side spot right by I-10 or I-95; Now you're talking about instantly appealing to US interstate traffic, along with the local crowd. 

I left the firm that was working on that project in 2008. By that time, we had spent at least two or three years coming up with alternative master site plan concepts. Everything from mixed use developments to industrial parks and single family home subdivisions. During the design development process, I remember looking at the rides (on paper) and thinking it would be a place most would visit once and never come back. Nevertheless, everything people say about pulling drivers off I-95 and serving North Florida/Southern Georgia, etc. was the same type of thinking behind Steamboat City.  At the end of the day, the numbers didn't work well enough for it too break ground.

[thelakelander]

Technically Adventure Landing is an amusement park ^_^

http://rcdb.com/5821.htm

Okay true. A Family Entertainment Center is technically a 'small amusement park' but use that term very loosely. When you're going to a FEC, expect to see laser tag, arcade, mini golf, and go-carts, moreso than a looping steel coaster, a dark ride, and a looping starship. Hell, Boomers down there in South Florida had a large wooden coaster (Dania Beach Hurricane) and it was known as a FEC.

Yes, technically Adventure Landing is an amusement park.  However, I think we can all agree that Adventure Landing is a far cry from what most envision when they talk about a Six Flags/Wild Adventures size park opening in Jax.

[I-10east]

^^^I personally would never call Adv Landing an 'amusement park'. In the amusement biz, it's definitely known as a Family Entertainment Center. When I think of 'small amusement park' I think of Lake Winnie, Lakeside (Denver), or Family Kingdom in Myrtle Beach.