243 replies to this topic

[Funkutown Retro Retro]

No everythings cool!! Let's just hope they keep on building and bringing jobs here...

[RD Milhollin]

Or split it off. Both the Soon-to-be-or-not-to-be Film Studio and Amusement Park and the Moving Fort Worth Forward are legitimate topics, IMO, but I agree they don't need to be in the same thread necessarily.

[prideftw]

I do agree it should be 3 separate topics. Because the issues that were brought up are real issues that need to be addressed.

[David Love]

Is this the Dream Visions Studios from Vegas run by Phyllis Taie, they have some not so friendly review rants and counter rants online? BBB has them rated at A-, which doesn't necessarily mean anything either way.

[Dylan]

I can already feel the enormous excitement of being the family entertainment capital of the world and home of world-famous DreamVision . . . Z Z z Z z z z

[beverlyb]

At least we got a nice fireworks show out of the hoopla!

[Funkutown Retro Retro]

I forgot all about this nonsense!

[Jeriat]

I forgot all about this nonsense!

Yep. 

Almost feels like a big tease. 

[RenaissanceMan]

Yeah... a small tip for anyone looking for incentives to locate in Fort Worth (or any major city for that matter): don't hold a highly public event complete with fireworks announcing that location as your new home and try to go immediately next door asking for incentives to locate there.

amateurs...

[Dylan]

They're asking for incentives from Dallas?  Or did I read that wrong?

[RenaissanceMan]

"next door" to city hall. They were asking for incentives from a city that they had already blatantly said they were 100% committed to moving to (hence, why on earth would Fort Worth need to incentivize them?).

[Dylan]

Oh, I get what you mean now.

[prideftw]

Will this company still be moving to Fort Worth? I have not heard or read anything sense the "celebration".

[retro]

Hhmmmmmm.......... Something just isnt right about this

[Austin55]

I asked Bud Kennedy on twitter if he had heard any new news about this, his reply, 

 

 

 

Absolutely nothing, and did not expect to.

Sounds about right. 

[retro]

Yikes!

[dfwerdoc]

their website is so over the top and frankly nutty ..... kinda like their whole street party here a few months back. someone needs to teach the ceo and the executives about being a little authentic (really audiences are "clamoring").  i don't see a viable business model for a multinational company; this has got American Greed written all over it. 

 

http://thedreamvisio...pany.com/press/

[retro]

Sold me a dream with no vision

[Austin55]

Well well well. What do ya know. Some more big, vague dreams. The most interesting one? The proposed price of 4 BILLION. Like, with a B. On 10,000 acres. In "North Texas" (not Fort Worth, mind you)

 

http://attractionsma...-planned-texas/

FOUR. BILLION. That's nearly twice Ed Bass's wealth. Good lord.

 

If a single peice of this happens I'll be shocked.  

[JBB]

 

Uh, not so much. This is being put on by a group that's going to announce an effort to build a Disney-esque theme park resort in the area. Call me skeptical. I'm going to bet there's very little money behind it, much like the fake ski resort or the Earth Quest project in the Houston area (Google it). I suppose they may be setting up office space downtown, but I don't think this event is really about that.

 
Quoted for truth. I don't think much has changed in the last year.

[RenaissanceMan]

I'll put it this way... If they don't have the land, they don't have a park.

Also, if they don't have a company (and by that I mean an established operation that is, you know, selling a product and gaining market share), it won't attract investors - now matter how many "exclusive" interviews they do with the trade magazines or how much of their potential they attempt to sell by way of association with the success of Disney, Pixar, etc.

These folks are starting to annoy me.

[JBB]

The story that Austin linked to sounds like it was written using the "About Us" section on their website.

[cberen1]

FOUR. BILLION. That's nearly twice Ed Bass's wealth. Good lord.

 

I don't want to start a separate discussion, but the way they estimate wealth for Forbes and other publications is prone to wild inaccuracies.  If you could really dig in, which you very deliberately can't, I'm pretty sure you'd find Ed's wealth is WAY over the $2 Billion that it's estimated to be.  They've estimated it at $2 Billion for over ten years.  And in those ten years oil has been high, real estate has rebounded, and the stock market it up considerably. 

 

Ed's team is made up of VERY adept investment professionals.  These guys are incredibly good at what they do on all fronts.  And the uber wealthy have investment options available to them that we never will, particularly around issues like taxes.  I absolutely will not believe that Ed Bass put all that effort into staying even.

 

Sorry.  Rant over.

[Fort Worthology]

At what point does everybody realize this is never going to happen and just goes back to ignoring these people?

[RenaissanceMan]

At what point does everybody realize this is never going to happen and just goes back to ignoring these people?

But Kevin! Their animated short garnered a 37% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes! These guys are legit!

[Austin55]

At what point does everybody realize this is never going to happen and just goes back to ignoring these people?

It's humorous! I can't wait for them to say what they'll never do next.

[JBB]

This won't go away and it sounds more dubious every time there's new news:

 

 http://www.waaytv.co...fb5ba53d68.html

[Austin55]

3.5 Billion.

At what point does everybody realize this is never going to happen and just goes back to ignoring these people?

It's humorous! I can't wait for them to say what they'll never do next.

Haha, they succeed. That article gave me a chuckle. It seems so ridiculous.

But this is interesting...

"A representative with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce said the company will announce its plans for a theme park in Fort Worth on Feb. 9, and has chosen a site in the area where it wants to build a park there."

[Volare]

It just won't go away...

 

http://www.bizjourna...BA&t=1422975089

[Austin55]

Here's their website with the press release info.

http://thedreamvisio...xas-press-event

They have a separate for the Muscle Shoals event.

[Fort Worthology]

There's no real news or information in any of these articles - the rendering on the DBJ article isn't even of this thing.

[Austin55]

Nope that's Disney's California Adventure new front gate they recently built that is pictured. I follow the amusement park industry really closely and this hasn't had any buzz among those circles either. Usually you'll see certain people on certain payrolls, ride manufacturers getting contracts, etc, but nothing with this.

[johnfwd]

I'll put it this way... If they don't have the land, they don't have a park.

Also, if they don't have a company (and by that I mean an established operation that is, you know, selling a product and gaining market share), it won't attract investors - now matter how many "exclusive" interviews they do with the trade magazines or how much of their potential they attempt to sell by way of association with the success of Disney, Pixar, etc.

These folks are starting to annoy me.

 

 

Nope that's Disney's California Adventure new front gate they recently built that is pictured. I follow the amusement park industry really closely and this hasn't had any buzz among those circles either. Usually you'll see certain people on certain payrolls, ride manufacturers getting contracts, etc, but nothing with this.

I can't imagine keeping secret for too long the purchase of 5,000 acres in Fort Worth, but I don't believe such a transaction has occurred, yet.  Their corporation is not yet registered with the Texas Secretary of State, but that's easily and quickly done.  Guess we'll just have to wait until Feb. 9.

[elpingüino]

To illustrate how much land we're talking about here: Six Flags covers about 214 acres (I think that includes parking, but I'm not positive). So this 5,000-acre theme park would be the size of more than 23 Six Flags.

"One Hundred Thirty-Eight Flags Over Texas" does have a nice ring to it...

[John T Roberts]

[jefffwd]

[Now in Denton]

We cannot even get "Left Bank" going beyond a bunch of pile of dirt after seven years !

[Fort Worthology]

To illustrate how much land we're talking about here: Six Flags covers about 214 acres (I think that includes parking, but I'm not positive). So this 5,000-acre theme park would be the size of more than 23 Six Flags.

"One Hundred Thirty-Eight Flags Over Texas" does have a nice ring to it...

 

I'd never looked any of that stuff up before.  (Incidentally, the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World is 104 acres and Epcot is 300.)

 

5,000 acres?  These people are high out of their freaking minds.

[johnfwd]

Okay, pre-mature quiz question:  Where to find 5,000 acres of saleable land in Fort Worth?

 

a)   far north near TMS

b]   far east somewhere before you get to Arllington

c)   far south among the weeds somewhere

d)   far west before you get to Weatherford

e)   near Sundance Square Plaza

[Austin55]

 

 

I'd never looked any of that stuff up before.  (Incidentally, the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World is 104 acres and Epcot is 300.)

5,000 acres?  These people are high out of their freaking minds.

 

 

 

Worth noting though that the Disneyworld property as a whole is 27,000 acres, most of which is undeveloped. I'd assume this proposal would look similar, perhaps a park or few around 200 acres, golf courses, resorts, etc. (This would also mean that unless they use some skewed defintions that 5k acres would be nowhere near the largest park in the world)

 

Just to compare that size to a few existing places, the NAS base+Lockheed facilities is about 2,400 acres. The entirety of downtown, Near Southside, and the Cultural district is about 3,000.There are certainly some massive swaths of land North, South and West of FW, but none that look like 5,000 acres. It's also interesting that they were saying 10,000 in past press releases. 

 

 

I also chuckled at the FWBP article. It's just got a tone of "yea, ok, wahtever" to it.

[elpingüino]

Okay, pre-mature quiz question:  Where to find 5,000 acres of saleable land in Fort Worth?

 

a)   far north near TMS

b]   far east somewhere before you get to Arllington

c)   far south among the weeds somewhere

d)   far west before you get to Weatherford

e)   near Sundance Square Plaza

 

 

Ding.  We have a winner:  West of Fort Worth, per Bud Kennedy.

 

Still not sure where that would be, since much of the undeveloped land on the far west side is already dedicated to the Walsh Ranch development.

[JBB]

I think we're going to find out that their biggest problem isn't a lack of land. It's going to be a lack of money.

[johnfwd]

I think we're going to find out that their biggest problem isn't a lack of land. It's going to be a lack of money.

I forgot we had a discussion back in the summer of 2013 about where the proposed theme park would be located; but Bud Kennedy's guess as to west of Fort Worth wasn't confirmed, I don't believe.

 

Though evidently failing at my half-hearted attempt to be comical on quizzing about buying 5,000 acres, I still believe far north FW would be a better location, given the predominance of the popular TMS in that area already (not to mention business air transportation infrastructure in Alliance Airport).  I may be wrong, but if I were really serious about such a venture I would first purchase the land--after lining up private investors.  In an earlier article, it was noted that DreamVision had the support of "a group of Fort Worth investors."  But, I'm like a lot of others here...much hype thus far, no land yet, maybe no venture capital money.  And, did they ever move their corporate headquarters to Fort Worth?  Again, no Texas SOS registration of The DreamVision Company, yet.

[JBB]

I still believe far north FW would be a better location, given the predominance of the popular TMS in that area already (not to mention business air transportation infrastructure in Alliance Airport).

While I don't disagree that far north FW might be a likely location, a race track with large events 3 weekends out of the year and private business air travel are going to contribute very little to the success of a large theme park, regional like Six Flags or destination like Disney.

[Fort Worthology]

 

 

Worth noting though that the Disneyworld property as a whole is 27,000 acres, most of which is undeveloped. I'd assume this proposal would look similar, perhaps a park or few around 200 acres, golf courses, resorts, etc. (This would also mean that unless they use some skewed defintions that 5k acres would be nowhere near the largest park in the world)

 

 

 

That's true.  It's also true that that's *Disney,* not suspiciously information-free random people prone to making grand proclamations and vague allusions about "family values" or whatever.

 

And, of course, Disney's property is the result of decades of growth.

[elpingüino]

Bud Kennedy weighs in: https://www.facebook...945648668780684 (free link to today's column)

[JBB]

An interesting article from an Alabama media source:

http://www.al.com/ne...the_propos.html

The comments alone are worth clicking the link. If you think some of on here are skeptical...

[Austin55]

Hahahaha this is insane. Did anyone see the article yesterday in the ST about them being in the middle of a 100 thousand dollar lawsuit with a bank to?


Please keep announcing things, Dreamvision. Your wild promises are more entertaining than any theme park.

[Big Frog II]

Are we sure this is not Candid Camera?

[Fort Worthology]

The more I learn about this company and this dude, the harder I roll my eyes.  It's a bit ridiculous that anybody in FW is even listening to this guy.  His business experience seems limited to running an alcohol-free Christian nightclub in Kissimmee, FL in the '90s that closed in apparently less than a year, co-writing (maybe?) a book that only seems to exist on no-name Christian booksellers but whose cover proclaims "soon to be a major motion picture!", defaulting on a $99k note in Florida while promising to build 5,000 acre theme parks worth billions, and being listed as a producer on an extremely amateurish-looking Christian short film.

 

EDIT:  And also composing music for a film from 2000 about J. Edgar Hoover that is apparently just Ernest Borgnine ranting in-character for 90 minutes with no other actors/characters and which currently enjoys a 2 star rating on Amazon.

 

(I only mention the Christian aspect several times because, well, that's what they are - identified overtly as such.  No judgement implied.)

 

If only our *actual* successful businesspeople got the attention this guy gets for just pumping out random press releases.  (And yes, I know, discussing it doesn't help it go away.)