Universal Parks and Resorts is home to the PGA of America headquarters, two golf courses, the University of North Texas campus, and thousands of homes.
But how did Universal Parks decide to build a new micropark in a suburb 30 minutes north of Dallas?
“Frisco has built a brand that is now nationally recognized with projects like The Star and PGA Frisco,” said Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney. “They were trying to get into this market, and as I know they searched various sites in neighboring cities and kept hearing about Frisco.” , decided that this was the place they wanted.”
Intended for children ages 3 to 11, the park will occupy 97 acres at the intersection of the Dallas North Toll Road and Panther Creek Parkway. Its footprint is less than a fifth of his size at Universal Orlando and less than half the size of Arlington’s Six Flags Over Texas.
“I’m not too surprised that they decided to capitalize on a trend in the theme park industry known as microparks,” said theme park expert and journalist Carly Kalamanna. It’s a park with a smaller print, unlike those megaparks we’re used to, they’re aimed at a local audience and meet the needs of both the consumer angle and the needs of these major companies .”
Frisco provided Universal with $12.7 million in performance-based financial incentives. According to the city, those incentives include his $10.7 million in grants for infrastructure such as roads and utilities, and his $2 million tax rebate for materials published over 20 years. .
The park is a continuation of the northern expansion of the North Texas region that included last year’s passage of the CHIPS Act, said James Harrington, associate professor of public and nonprofit management at the University of Texas at Dallas. The bill is expected to bring in jobs for Sherman.
“We are going to see a lot of jobs, high tech jobs going into Sherman and expanding that growth from McKinney to Anna to Melissa to Van Alstein to Sherman. We’ll look at it,” Harrington said. “We are also seeing tremendous growth within Collin County with Toyota’s headquarters moving to Plano. , and I think it’s going to continue this growth.”
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Universal Parks & Resorts is owned by NBCUniversal, which also owns NBC 5. Universal Parks & Resorts currently operates theme parks and resort facilities around the world, including his two locations in Hollywood, California, USA and Orlando, Florida. The company also operates parks in Osaka, Japan, Sentosa Island, Singapore, and Beijing, China.