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New Legoland Park in New York?

Does anyone care?

  • No.

    Votes: 14 40.0%

  • Aw, hell no!

    Votes: 11 31.4%

  • If it has a Lego Ghostbusters attraction I might take a look.

    Votes: 6 17.1%

  • Wait, New York is a STATE?

    Votes: 4 11.4%
  • Total voters
    35
And sort of linked,
seen an ad for theme park lego coming out in June in an argos leaflet in my morning paper yesterday.
 
The proposed $500 million Legoland New York theme park cleared a key hurdle Thursday when the town Planning Board voted 5-1 to accept the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement.

Now the proposed theme park proceeds to a findings statement, and once that is approved, the Planning Board, operating under New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act, would move toward site plan approval

http://www.recordonline.com/news/20...hes-next-level-as-goshen-planners-accept-feis
 
Sorry to bump the thread, but according to Merlin's controversial trade report in October 2017, the park has been approved for a 2020 opening. I really hope that this is successful for Merlin, as apparently, Legoland Japan wasn't as successful as they were hoping.
 
Sorry for double posting, but apparently Merlin has been forced to stop clearing trees on the site of Legoland New York. This is apparently due to some sort of law that means they can only clear between November and March in order to protect the habitats of bats living on site during roosting season. I don't know about you, but this sort of reminds me of the spiders living on the London Resort site. But why am I telling you this? Well, this law could apparently see the park get pushed back to 2021.
 
Matt N said:
Sorry for double posting, but apparently Merlin has been forced to stop clearing trees on the site of Legoland New York. This is apparently due to some sort of law that means they can only clear between November and March in order to protect the habitats of bats living on site during roosting season. I don't know about you, but this sort of reminds me of the spiders living on the London Resort site. But why am I telling you this? Well, this law could apparently see the park get pushed back to 2021.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I am wrong but 'November to March' usually includes January so if they can only clear during those times then why stop? Sound like an excuse, not a reason.
 
IanSR said:
Correct me if I am wrong but 'November to March' usually includes January so if they can only clear during those times then why stop? Sound like an excuse, not a reason.
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From Screamscape - I wondered if it meant you could only clear Spring/Summer/'Fall' between March & November and that had got lost in the write up somewhere.

"The early land clearing taking place already for LEGOLAND New York came to a stop this week as part of a temporary restraining order to cease tree-clearing at the 500-acre site. While likely a temporary delay, the move could cost the park an extra year of construction, as tree-clearing on the site is only allowed between November and March to protect the "roosting areas" for two species of bats. According to Merlin, if they don't get back to clearing the site before the end of January, the opening could be delayed from Spring 2020 to 2021."
 
Thanks @Rick I wondered that too but that's even funnier, I know America writes their dates backwards, but I'm pretty sure their calendars don't run back and if it got lost in translation somewhere that's some really terrible English to English translator on the books.

Assuming that hasn't happened, 'Temporary Restraining Order' sounds like NIMBY's or an excuse they hope people don't look too closely at, Lego have had a fairly bad couple of years and the last time they nearly went bust they went 'back to basics' and cut ties with all things non-brick, the same boss that took that decision is still in charge so could it be that Lego are starting to shy away from theme parks after a couple of poor trading years? After all this week has proven big businesses are never too big to fail.

I have a friend living near the site so I'll ask him if he knows what the tree felling restrictions are for the area.
 
They probably said they're shooting for a million guests so the planners don't think the impact on surrounding roads will be too severe.
 
MakoMania said:
They probably said they're shooting for a million guests so the planners don't think the impact on surrounding roads will be too severe.
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Well, quite - but that tactic isn't without consequence when you're a public company!
 
So Merlin requested $1 million from the state to help pay for marketing Legoland New York.

Suffice to say, it didn’t go down to well.

GOSHEN — New York Senators James Skoufis and Jen Metzger are objecting to Legoland New York's request to the Orange County Legislature for up to $1 million to market their theme park, now under construction in Goshen, around the world.

“Legoland needs to get their hands out of our taxpayers' pockets," said Skoufis, who represents the 39th District. "Their audacity knows no bounds: millions of dollars in so-called incentives and excessively generous property tax breaks apparently aren't enough,” said Senator Skoufis. “The Orange County Legislature should reject Legoland's request for publicly funded advertisements and make them pay for their own marketing like every other corporation.”[\quote]

http://www.chroniclenewspaper.com/a...Get-your-hands-out-of-our-taxpayers'-pockets'
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Sorry for the double post.

It’s Earth day today, so what better time to bring you news that Merlin have been fined $230,000 for polluting local waterways during the construction of Legoland New York.

Apparently this isn’t the first time they have been given a violation for the same issue.

  • The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation cited Legoland New York's owner and contractors with 22 new violations this month in an effort to prevent continuing discharge of construction runoff from the $500 million project into local waterways, the Tribune Herald-Recordreported. The total fines attached to these latest violations total $228,050.
  • The state’s order, like a previous one it issued in September 2018 for similar violations at the park’s construction site, is directed at Legoland owner Merlin Entertainments; Pearl River, New York-based general contractor Holt Construction; and local engineering firm Lanc & Tully. The order gives them 10 days to stabilize eroded soil and 30 days to come up with a new erosion control plan.
  • Since May 2018, the state has cited the project 27 times for polluting waterways, and the Town of Goshen has issued one citation. Project officials have said that above-average rainfall has contributed to the runoff, as has a town mandate that requires crews to move excavated dirt around the site due to a ban on trucking in or removing soil in order to keep construction trucks off local roads.
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https://www.constructiondive.com/ne...legoland-new-york-spurs-22-violations/553100/
 
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Legoland New York was due to open on 4th July 2020. This has been pushed back to some point in 2021, exact date yet to be announced.

 
After reading the above posts it looks like Merlin have managed to p!ss off the locals by polluting waterways and then p!ss them off again by wanting them to pay for the parks marketing though tax. This must be a record for even them to annoy everyone this much before they've even built an attraction. I can't see it being very popular if they carry on like this.
 
Legoland New York was due to open on 4th July 2020, but of course due to the events of this year it was pushed back to 2021.

However looking at this video, taken at the end of May 2020 I seriously doubt that original opening day could have been met even without covid slowing things down since March? The hotel hadn't even got past the first floor of construction and most of the rides aren't even onsite.



Seems covid gave them the reason they needed to delay this one.
 
Legoland New York has now opened for soft openings. The park isn’t ready yet, with the Pirate area still completely closed and the hotel no where near ready (both are stated to open ‘late summer’).

Reviews so far aren’t great, with 2.5 stars on Trip Advisor. It’s early days of course but it seems they have simply opened (even for soft openings) too early.


https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attra...LEGOLAND_New_York_Resort-Goshen_New_York.html

Must say from the pictures the landscaping does look pretty poor/non-existent. There is a lot of concrete with plonked buildings and little else in various areas of the park.

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I watched a vlog the other week and it has no landscaping or greenery what so ever which as said above makes it look beyond bland. It really needs some of the concrete digging up and some extra green spaces added.
 
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