Rumors swirl around 'world's biggest theme park' coming to Alabama

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. — A Texas company is rumored to be considering building a massive amusement park in northwest Alabama. However, no one in the state who would typically be involved in the development of a project that size seems to have any idea what is actually going on.

A press release went out late last week from a Gmail account claiming to be affiliated with DreamVision Co. announcing that the 1,400-acre theme park would focus on CGI animation, live action motion pictures, theatrical productions, television, music and resort destinations. For context, Six Flags Over Georgia is just under 300 acres, total.

The release said the park will carry a $3.5 billion price tag, will be paid for with private funds and could employ an astounding 15,000-20,000 workers from the surrounding area.

The company has yet to reveal the exact location or timeline for the project, only teasing that more information would become available at a Feb. 11 press conference at the Marriott Shoals Hotel.

Alabama officials reacted to the release with a combination of bemusement, skepticism and hope.

Commerce Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield said his office had not been contacted by the company ahead of the release.

Retirement Systems of Alabama CEO David Bronner said “it’d be fun if it happens, but it sounds far-fetched.”

Stephen Holt, president of the Shoals Chamber of Commerce, said he touched base with his counterpart in Fort Worth, Texas, and was told that “there was an ongoing confidential project on their end. That’s the extent of the legitimacy they could share with us. They were aware of it for sure.”

According to DreamVision’s website, the Fort Worth, Texas company is “a core-branded entertainment corporation centered on emotionally-driven and technologically-advanced offerings featured in diverse, family values-based guest experiences that instill hope and inspiration.”

The site also now has a page devoted to the upcoming Alabama press event, on which it hints at a project they’ve dubbed “DreamVision Soundscape.”

As over-the-top bizarre as the rumors have been to this point, the company itself does appear to have some credibility in the entertainment industry.

One of the company’s purported founders, Ron Logan, is a retired Disney executive who is, according to a July 2014 article in Attractions Magazine, “a genuine Disney Legend” whose “biography reads like a starry- eyed combination of the very best shows in the Disney empire” with “highlights like Epcot’s spectacular IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, the nightly Hollywood Studios show Fantasmic!, Animal Kingdom’s Festival of the Lion King and Spectromagic at Magic Kingdom, as well as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Dinner Show at Disneyland Paris.”

Here’s an excerpt from the Attractions Magazine article that is particularly relevant in the light of the recent rumors:

The DreamVision Company was started 17 years ago in Orlando by Rick Silanskas and joined in 2009 by Disney Legend and former Executive Vice President and Executive Producer for Walt Disney Entertainment Ron Logan.

Together, the duo have set the ball rolling on a massive undertaking of film, theater and – most importantly – theme park development, that aims to redefine the family entertainment genre with the essence of Walt Disney himself.

It is an immensely ambitious vision, too, as plans call for a massive $4 billion theme park in North Texas with the kind of detail we usually only see in the very best that Disney and Universal have to offer.

But Silanskas and Logan insist it will actually go beyond the current scope of the world’s grandest theme park experiences, as well as turning the clock back to the typical family values espoused by Walt when he first created Disneyland in 1955.

The email that went out last week said the company had decided to launch not only the Texas theme park, but also a second park in north Alabama.

North Alabama State Rep. Lynn Greer (R-Rogersville) told the Decatur Daily he was “cautiously optimistic” about the proposal and said that, if true, it could be a “tremendous economic boost for the area.”