Magic Mountain Builder Plans 400-Acre Project
Development giant Newhall Land & Farming Co., which built Magic Mountain in the early 1970s, is planning a 400-acre addition to the theme park that would include an attraction with a movie special-effects theme, a retail and entertainment complex, and hotels.
The project, about four times the size of the existing park, has been under study for more than two years. Newhall Land hopes to complete planning for it in the coming year, spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said.
“We are still in the very early stages of putting these ideas together,” Lauffer said, declining to discuss design or financial details.
The expansion, which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, would intensify the competition in Southern California’s multibillion-dollar theme park industry at a critical time. Attendance at the region’s largest parks--Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Sea World, Universal Studios and Magic Mountain--has fallen 6.5% during the last two years to 29 million in 1998.
And the competition is getting more intense. A new park, Legoland, opened this spring in Carlsbad. Universal and Sea World in San Diego are opening pricey new attractions this summer. And Walt Disney Co. is building a $1.4-billion second park in Anaheim, while Knott’s has plans to add a water-slide park in Buena Park.
Valencia-based Newhall Land sold Magic Mountain in 1977. The park is now owned by Premier Parks Inc. of Oklahoma City, which bought the Six Flags chain last year. Premier Parks officials couldn’t be reached for comment.
Magic Mountain is known primarily as a regional attraction catering to young thrill-seekers, billing itself as having the West’s hottest collection of roller coasters. However, it also has a separate water-slide park, Hurricane Harbor, which operates during warm weather, and it recently announced it would try to extend its core franchise by expanding an area aimed at young children.
Lauffer said Newhall Land is coordinating with Magic Mountain’s operators as it develops its plans. She wouldn’t elaborate.
In adding the special-effects “second gate,” along with an entertainment mall and lodging for visitors, Newhall would follow the model of theme park operators such as Disney and Seagram Co.’s Universal.
Disney, which has 47 square miles of theme parks, hotels, malls and other projects in Florida, is building a second gate beside Disneyland: Disney California Adventure, including a 750-room hotel and a retail, dining and entertainment center called Downtown Disney.
And Universal is opening in stages a similar complex beside its existing studio-themed park in Florida. When complete, it will have a version of its CityWalk outdoor mall, five hotels and a new Islands of Adventure theme park.
The addition to what is now called Six Flags Magic Mountain would be in a V-shaped parcel wrapped around the park’s western and southern borders.
