Universal Destinations & Experiences on Friday revealed new details about the theme park it is building in Frisco. That includes the park’s official name, Universal Kids Resort.
In January, the company announced it would build a family-friendly theme park and 300-room themed resort hotel in North Texas. Executives at Universal Destinations & Experiences, a division of NBC 5’s parent company Comcast NBCUniversal, confirmed Friday that they had received zoning approval to move forward with the project and announced the park’s official name. announced.
We design our resorts so that children and families can feel the thrill of physically immersing themselves in the stories and characters they love most.
Molly Murphy, Universal Creative
The theme park will be the company’s first park specifically designed for families with young children and will accommodate riders up to 46 inches tall.
“The entire resort has very lush landscaping, with buffer trees planted,” said Paige Thompson, president of new business for Universal Destinations & Experiences.
Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said, “The characters that children in this community have grown up loving and who they see and touch every day will grow up to be the very essence of what it means to grow up in Frisco and live in Frisco.” Told.
The final renderings released Friday morning differ from the original vision proposed in January 2023 (compare January and December renderings below).
The site is about a quarter the size of Orlando’s park and has been scaled back to be more “intimate and inviting” for younger guests. The company announced in January that the theme park would have a completely different look, feel and scale compared to Universal’s existing parks, but would maintain the same quality as larger resorts.
The city estimates Universal Kids Resort will generate $200 million in annual spending in Frisco.
Universal Creative President Molly Murphy said the park was designed with young children in mind.
“We’ll have playful shows, meet-and-greets, and fun food and drinks. We’re designing with children’s endless creativity in mind,” Murphy said. “From a child’s perspective. What does it look, feel, smell and taste like? Tap into their imagination and sense of discovery and play.”
Cheney added Friday that the road leading to the park will be named Universal Parkway.
City leaders and Universal executives spoke of their dedication to involving the community in this process.
“Honestly, this was probably the longest zoning we’ve ever done for a project of this size,” Cheney told the audience.
Residents attended community and city council meetings to voice concerns about the proposed theme park, including its size, increased traffic and potential impact on crime.
“There were some concerns about traffic, but once the show started, [residents] The community has been very supportive of this project in terms of how we widen the road to create flow,” Cheney said.
Some residents of the Cobb Hill area, which borders the proposed construction site, were vocal in their opposition, fearing that their home values would be affected and that the homes in the subdivision would be turned into short-term rentals for visitors. I was also among people.
The company will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the park in November, with vertical construction expected to begin in early 2024. On Friday, construction crews were seen constructing a portion of the concrete block wall along the Cobb Hill entrance that will enclose a portion of the previously open subdivision. The project is expected to take approximately two years to complete and will bring approximately 2,500 construction jobs to the area.