SeaWorld Orlando Plans To Open Additional Attraction

POSTED: 3:13 pm EDT June 18, 2005

ORLANDO, Fla. -- SeaWorld Orlando is planning its first major expansion in five years, but the company provided few details on the 58-acre attraction it hopes to open in 2007.

SeaWorld spokeswoman Becca Bides said Friday the company wouldn't announce specifics until the fall, but said it would be about a third the size of SeaWorld and larger than Discovery Cove, the 30-acre park that opened in 2000.

Residents of nearby Williamsburg have heard the attraction will be a water park. Jerry Pastore, president of the Montpelier Village Home Owners Association, said SeaWorld workers have told him that a $90 million water park would be developed.

Plans filed by SeaWorld with Orange County indicate the park would be developed on part of about 100 acres the company owns. The plans show five attraction areas, with no specifics about what they would be. No building in the expansion would exceed 140 feet, according to the filing.

The park's capacity was listed as 7,500 people.

If SeaWorld opens a water park, it would be competition with the Universal Orlando-owned Wet 'n Wild attraction, which opened in 1977 a few miles north of SeaWorld.

SeaWorld is owned by Anheuser Busch, based in St. Louis.

Abe Pizam, dean of the College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida, said if the new attraction is a water park, it likely will be a new concept.

"They're smart enough to know there are a lot of water parks already," he said.

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