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The GTA could be seeing a major new attraction thanks to a massive new indoor/outdoor water park and event complex currently in its planning stages. Announced earlier today, the $60 million dollar facility is scheduled to begin construction in the spring of 2015 and be fully operational by fall of the following year. The 100,000 square-foot attraction will feature a retractable roof, allowing it to operate year round and provide a refuge from both winter cold and summer heat.
The proposal comes from developer marbleLIVE, headed by Toronto entrepreneur John Barrack and marblemedia, one of Canada's leading multiplatform content creators. The proposed water park and event complex comes hot on the heels of the recent opening of Ripley's Aquarium, which was the first significant tourist attraction built in Toronto in almost 3 decades.
The all-season, indoor/outdoor water park will bring significant employment opportunities to the GTA during the development stages of its creation. Once fully operational, the attraction will employ 230 full-time personnel and expects to attract over half a million visitors within its first year of operation. "People in the GTA are hungry for new entertainment experiences," said John Barrack, Managing Partner at marbleLIVE. "We're going to give them a dynamic year-round attraction that's part-water-park, part-theme-park and all fun, all the time."
Potential locations for this proposed complex are still being considered, though marbleLive has already initiated discussions with city officials in both Mississauga and Toronto about potential sites. They have also been briefing Ontario's Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport about the boost the attraction will have on the tourism industry in the GTA. Barrack said, "We now have a short-list of three locations. Our final decision will be based on our intricate design and operational needs, as well as visitor accessibility."
Do you have comments on the proposal? Check out the dataBase file, linked below, for more information. Want to talk about the project? You can join in the conversation in the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.
