Merlin Entertainments, the leading name in location-based, family entertainment, and retail developers CentrO have announced details of their €15 million scheme to expand Germany’s biggest shopping mall, the CentrO Oberhause.
The CentrO Oberhause, located in the Ruhr tourist centre Oberhausen, is already home to one of Merlin’s SEA LIFE centres. The latest plans will see the old Centr0 Amusement Park replaced with Ocean Adventure Park. In addition there will be a new LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre (LDC).
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Merlin has been managing the Centr0 Amusement Park for the last year, and the first phase of the redevelopment is already in progress and due to complete in spring 2013. One of the exciting new attractions planned for the new Ocean Adventure Park will be the Antarctic Adventure Expedition Extreme, an experience for the whole family that will combine a ride, an aquarium and penguin encounters with an Antarctica theme. Merlin’s strategy of continuous investment in their theme parks means that there will be new attractions to look forward to every season.
Work is scheduled to begin on the new LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in Oberhausen in summer 2012. This LDC will be Merlin’s second in Germany and eighth worldwide. The LDCs, aimed at families with children between 3 and 10 years old, provide a range of play areas including a 4D cinema, a brick pool, LEGO Master Model Builder brick building master classes, LEGO rides and a MINILAND exhibit reflecting local iconic buildings and structures.
Merlin Entertainments’ Managing Director Midway Attractions, Glenn Earlam, said, “This is a major investment for Merlin but one in which we have enormous confidence. Our creative colleagues in Merlin Magic Making have come up with some exceptional ideas for the new Ocean Adventure Park which cannot fail to please. While the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre concept is already successful in both Europe and the USA. More than that, our experience has shown that bringing together an exciting mix of retail, dining, and quality leisure attractions like these, creates a whole new element to a family day out, delivering significant incremental business to both the shopping centre, and to the area as a whole. We are therefore particularly delighted to be so closely associated with CentrO Mall which has all these elements, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank our partners and landlords CentrO, with whom we have an excellent working relationship and whose support has been a critical factor in our decision to invest here. Such projects also play an important part in Merlin’s future growth strategy for our ‘midway’ or indoor City Centre attractions.”