New "Green" Earthquest Resort & Theme Park in New Caney, TX

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http://www.iaapa.org/industry/funworld/2009/mar/departments/IndustryNotes.asp

Is No ‘Dinosaur Park’ PLANS FOR A NEW 500-ACRE ENTERTAINMENT AND EDUCATIONAL PROJECT, WHICH HAS BEENMISCHARACTERIZED AS A “DINOSAUR PARK” IN SOME NEWS STORIES, are taking shape in New Caney, Texas, about 40 minutes from downtown Houston.

To be called EarthQuest, the development include a for-profit entertainment park complete with rides and other attractions, and a nonprofit educational institute, according to Don Lessem, creator and founder of the park. “It’s a $500 million project with about 50 different rides, including several ‘E-ticket’ rides,” he said, “like going inside a volcano, going through an actual ice cave, launch rides, coasters, and technologies that haven’t been used before.”

The park will be divided into sections— one devoted to sky, one to water, one to land, and one to prehistory, which will be called Pangaea. There will also be a waterpark and an animal park featuring creatures from Africa, South America, and Texas.

At the center of the park, said Lessem, will be the EarthQuest Institute, a $100 million research and educational center comprising 58 acres. “It’s a very interactive environmental presentation,” said Lessum, “and a lot of that is about how we change the way we live. It’s going to have 4-D theaters, reconstructed environments from the past, and lots of very enterprising interactive presentations of new research.”

Lessem said the reason the park has been mischaracterized is because of his reputation for creating traveling and permanent exhibitions featuring dinosaurs, his work as an adviser on the original “Jurassic Park” movie and theme park ride, and his creation of the two largest charities for dinosaur research, all of which have earned him the nickname “Dino” Don.

Lessem noted that Marlin Atlantis is the company behind EarthQuest, and its principal, John Marlin, is a developer who owns the project’s land. Contour Entertainment of Van Nuys, California, has been brought on board to design the project, and Lessum said they’ve already chosen the suppliers they’ll be using for the project. The institute is slated to open in the fall of 2011 and the park in the spring of 2012. Anticipated attendance for the entire project is 3 million annually.

Offical website: http://www.earthquestadventures.com/

Wow!