 |
| Artist's impression of the Happyland Theme Park |
Sanderson Group, which cut its teeth developing Movie World on the Coast, has fleshed out plans for the Happyland theme park just outside of Ho Chi Minh City.
The project, which has lured Michael Jackson's father Joe as an investor, will house Vietnam's first film and television studios and will be home to reality-show franchises such as Idol and Next Top Model.
Happyland, being developed by wealthy Vietnamese businesswoman Madame Thao, will comprise a five-star hotel, shopping centres, exhibition centres and a 180-degree dome theatre to be built alongside two theme parks. Joe Jackson is investing in the hotel component of the attraction.
The Sanderson Group, headed by Steve Sanderson, has just completed a suite of projects in Asia over the past five years including Disney Seas in Tokyo and the Universal Studios in Singapore. It is preparing to kick off construction of the Movie World attraction at Happyland in November ahead of a 2014 opening.
Sanderson Group, whose most recent Gold Coast work was the new fitout at Ripley's Believe It or Not in Surfers Paradise, is one of the few companies in the world that can design and construct theme park projects. Sanderson employs about 400 staff, mostly in South East Asia, although it has taken with it about 30 senior managers from the Gold Coast region to its new base in Kuala Lumpur.
The company, which retains a presence at Burleigh Heads, has about $250 million of work in hand across Asia, but it is also looking to pick up more projects in Australia. "As we come out of the depressed market over the next 10 years we would like to re-establish ourselves here,'' Sanderson's project director Darren McLean said.
On Sanderson's list is Village Roadshow's proposed $80 million Wet `n' Wild park in Sydney.
The Happyland venture, backed by Madame Thao's Khang Thong Group, is tapping into a growing appetite for leisure activities among Asia's emerging middle class.
No comments:
Post a Comment