Universal Parks and Resorts announced Jan. 11 a new theme park to be located along the Dallas North Tollway in Frisco.
The new park concept will feature immersive-themed lands and celebrate Universal’s iconic brand of entertainment, humor and innovation, according to a Universal News release.
The development, named Universal Kids Frisco, is a new regional park concept aimed at younger children, according to a news release from Universal. The park will have a 300-room themed hotel at the front of the park, along with four or five themed park areas, according to Mark Woodbury, Universal Parks and Resorts chair and CEO.
“Each one of [the park areas is] full of attractions, interactive experiences, discovery experiences, exploration, learning opportunities and just a rich, rich experience for families to enjoy together,” Woodbury said.
The proposed park will be designed to be more “intimate and engaging” for younger audiences and will be sized for a regional audience, according to the release.
The proposed park also has plans for an adjacent themed hotel located on part of the 97 acres of land recently purchased by Universal Parks and Resorts. The project is planned to have a “completely different look, feel, and scale than Universal’s existing parks and will appeal to a new audience for the brand,” according to the news release.
Universal Parks and Resorts selected Frisco as the area for this new concept because of the city’s growing population and ability to attract businesses to the area. The proposed location is east of the Dallas North Tollway and north of Panther Creek Parkway.
The park will include family-friendly attractions, live shows, character meet and greets, merchandise, and food and beverage options, according to a presentation at the press conference. The park is intended to be a one- to two-day experience designed for families in Frisco and the surrounding areas, Woodbury said.
The park will be located on 97 acres of land in the Fields development at the northeast corner of Dallas North Tollway and Panther Creek Parkway. To compare, The Star District in Frisco sits on 91 acres. The land was recently purchased by Universal in anticipation of the project, said Page Thompson, president of new ventures for Universal. The proposed project is several years out from opening, but when it does it will only use about a third of the land purchased, leaving room for future expansions and keeping the park “manageable” for young children, Thompson said.
"That gives us plenty of room to build a park, this themed hotel featuring universal characters, parking areas and still have lots of room for a really lush landscape buffer as well as lots of space for a thoughtful exit and entrance plan,” Thompson said.
Universal operates five resorts worldwide, with nine total hotels and 10,000 hotel rooms, Woodbury said. This new regional park concept will be roughly a quarter of the size of Universal’s Orlando, Florida, theme park, which is a scale “appropriate for [a] young family audience”, Thompson said.
“It’s big enough that everyone will have a great time but not so big that children get exhausted by the end of the day,” Thompson said.
Universal began working on this concept a year ago and considered locations around the world, Thompson said. The company chose the North Texas area due to the region's accelerated growth, and it expects both local visitors and travelers from surrounding states, Thompson said.
“We picked Frisco just because it’s such a dynamic, exciting, fast-growing environment with a really strong base of families here in the area,” Thompson said.
The target audience of young children is a new concept for the company. Other Universal theme parks feature “thrilling experiences” that do not cater to young children, Thompson said. Recent additions to other Universal theme parks aimed toward that demographic, such as attractions for movies that include "Shrek," "Trolls" and "Minions," created the opportunity to design a park aimed at a younger audience, Thompson said.
“All of you can see why they chose Frisco. Frisco is known for being family-friendly. It's known for being innovative, being first in leaders in everything,” Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said, citing that the project is a great fit for the community.
The project’s potential to increase tourism in the city could also increase the city’s tax base, Cheney said in Universal’s news release. As the official destination marketing organization for the city, Visit Frisco hopes the project will shine a spotlight on Frisco, Director of Marketing and Communications Cori Powers said.
“I think [the development] just adds to our growing family-friendly environment and very playful atmosphere that’s welcoming for all families with younger kids,” Powers said.
A Universal theme park was not in the original plan for the Fields development, said Fields master developer Fehmi Karahan, who is president and CEO of The Karahan Companies. But creating a space for families to come to was always the goal, he said.
“This really fits to the overall vision of Fields,” Karahan said. “It’s absolutely a wonderful addition. It will bring more families and makes this area a super regional hub for everything. ... I couldn’t be more excited.”
Universal Kids Frisco will not change any other areas of the 2,500-acre Fields project, which involves several residential developments called villages, a Legacy West-style shopping center, hotels and commercial uses, Karahan said.
Despite the expected influx of traffic, Karahan said he was confident this project would be a good fit for the area. A theme park will help attract the nationwide and global headquarters he envisioned for the project as well as continue to draw people to move to the Fields villages, Karahan said. Compared to other potential developments—such as a Costco or Walmart, or even a corporate headquarters—where cars are coming and going at all times of the day, a theme park’s traffic is more manageable, he said.
“A Universal-type of place has a more controlled type of traffic,” Karahan said. “You go at certain hours; you spend all day there; you’re not in and out like you would be at major stores.”
Karahan is also the master developer of Legacy West in Plano, and he said that development generates more traffic than the Universal park would. However, Universal Kids Frisco will still create a destination atmosphere.
“It facilitates the Fields West project, because the restaurants and retailers are going to be far more excited to be at Fields West, which prompts Fields West to develop amenities and attract corporations,” he said. “That’s what made Legacy West hugely successful.”
He said he was honored that the Frisco site was the first to be selected by Universal.
“They could have gone anywhere in the world, and they focused on North Texas, ... and they decided on Fields Frisco, which makes a huge statement,” Karahan. “It’s an incredible success story.”
Woodbury said the company intends to become an “employer of choice” in the area by creating jobs and opportunities through the planned development. The brand is also focused on community involvement and engagement, Woodbury said.
“Frisco is built on great partnerships, and this project wouldn't be happening without great partnerships here in this community,” Cheney said, referring to the partnership between Universal and the Fields development team, including the Karahan Companies.
The city of Frisco held a public special meeting at 6:45 p.m. Jan. 11 at Trent Middle School to provide further updates on the project and hear resident concerns. See information from that meeting here.
Additional reporting by Miranda Jaimes
