Legoland Iskandar Starts Construction

Legoland's US$200 million theme park at Iskandar has been laid its first brick to signify the beginning of construction. Sited on a 26-hectare piece of land, Legoland Malaysia Resort, which will open its doors in 2012, is the centrepiece of the Medini North, a lifestyle development that will feature a retail mall, themed and business hotels, and office and residential spaces.

Business Times Singapore reports that Iskandar Investment is hopeful that the building of this theme park will catalyze more global partners to come into the Iskandar region to expedite its transformation into a“thriving new metropolis in Asia”.

A year on since the deal was first inked to build Legoland Malaysia, Legoland Development announced that the construction phase was now in full swing to bring the roller coasters, shows and more than 15,000 Lego models scattered around the theme park to life.

Legoland Malaysia, which is about a 15-minute drive from the Malaysian immigration checkpoint at the Second Link which leads to Tuas, will have a “Miniland” featuring miniature Lego replicas of famous buildings and structures across Asia, including the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest twin buildings in the world.

Legoland Malaysia is managed by Merlin Entertainments, which operates well-known attractions such as the London Eye observation wheel in England and Madame Tussauds museums.

Singapore's Universal Studios theme park at the Resorts World integrated resort which will open next year will cater more for young adults, while Johor’s two parks the Family Indoor Theme Park in Puteri Harbour and Legoland are targeted at children below the age of 12.

Legoland Malaysia joins its sister parks in Denmark, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. Those four parks collectively draw some six million visitors a year. There are also plans to open a Legoland in Dubai by 2015.

Will these Malaysian theme parks have the threshold Malaysian population and the disposable income size to be sustainable? What is the percentage of spill-over effects that they can liberally garner from the Singapore tourist industry?

Only time will tell whether these are good investments or white elephants.