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Busch Gardens Theme Park in Spring Hill

March 2, 2011 By 4 Comments
Busch Gardens theme park in Spring Hill

Busch Gardens theme park in Spring Hill

Busch Gardens theme park in Spring Hill? Nope.

Although the Cool Springs TN News has not confirmed yet, Busch Gardens seemed to be the likely candidate coming to Spring Hill Tennessee.

Today at 1pm Spring Hill officials are announcing the major employer potentially coming to the area that would create up to 1,000 new jobs.  A press conference will be held in a large field off Jim Warren Road in Maury County.

Michael Dinwiddie, the mayor of Spring Hill, said the group is a Florida based theme park company (Busch Gardens is Florida based) and plans to build a theme park on the east side of of I-65.  The proposed Spring Hill theme park would bring retail, hotels, shopping centers and restaurants.  Also rumored to be included in the Spring Hill theme park development is some type of sports venue.

Mayor Michael Dinwiddie has said the theme park is not religious based, such as the “Bible Park” previously slated to go in Lebanon.

The theme park entity is currently looking at 700 hundred acres on Jim Warren Road in Spring Hill, TN.  On Tuesday the Spring Hill Planning Commission voted 3-2 to change the city’s future land use plan for the 700 acres to commercial zoning, which allows a much wider and more general use.  The land has been rezoned B-4, considered to be the city’s least restrictive zoning.  Many residents are not happy such a large piece of land was rezoned without any knowledge of who or what would be developing there.

Spring Hill city officials have said the economic impact of the theme park development would be larger than the now closed Saturn plant, in addition to have a very positive regional impact.  No doubt Maury County and Williamson County would benefit significantly from a commercial development on that scale.

After evaluating the different amusement brands based in Florida, we believe Busch Gardens seems the most likely for Spring Hill.  Other Busch Gardens theme park locations utilize similar acreage and typically have interstate visibility.

We attempted to contact Busch Gardens about a possible theme park in Spring Hill but their corporate office phone number is so jammed a recorded message says there is with a 30 minute wait time, then followed by a message saying they are overwhelmed with calls and that no one is available.

Of course we might be completely off target, but our research points to Busch Gardens as the front runner coming to Spring Hill.

Stayed tuned to the Cool Springs TN News for more info!

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE:

The Spring Hill theme park will be called “Festival Tennessee”.  The developer is Big International Group of Entertainment Inc out of Henderson, NV.  The project will cost in the $700 million range and Big International Group of Entertainment Inc will NOT be asking local or state government for any tax incentives.  Festival Tennessee will be designed by ITEC Entertainment Corp in Orlando, FL.  At the press conference today, the developers described it as a mini Disney.

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  • Greatfulmary

    I hate to see this mess up a safe little corner of nashville, I can’t stand the idea of more traffic, low income apartments for the hotel, restaurant , and gas station attendents, or passing by the dive motels for the people that can’t afford to stay at the onsite hotel. Beyond that, If this questionable plan should fail in the mid or long term we would left with random unknown interstate travelers that cant afford a hotel in nashville or along the booked row of motels on Trinity lane stopping for the night. Most who come for the park will be scraping together the money to come to this 1/2 thought out place from a lot of surrounding communities. The reason they will come here is they will be looking for a cheap vacation. Do really think people with money are going to choose this over Disney. So we end up with more retail jobs that pay very little. How is that working for you… me? I have my answer. We can do better. We should do better.
    Don’t bring us the hope of making money on someones get rich quick scheme and in the end we end up with low paying part time service sector jobs that disappear when this thing falls apart. Come on. This isn’t the east side “tech park” or manufacturing facility you promised during your campaign. Instead of us HOPING this is a sketchy idea, we all should be telling our aldermen and mayor this isn’t what we want for Spring Hill. We want a safe tax base and jobs we can be proud of not someone elses get rich quick scheme. We certainly don’t need to end up another interstate potty stop. (which is exactly what happened in the town I moved from) Look at the exit where AmSouth was. Look good to you? Multiply that by the 20,000 that they are claiming. You reallly can’t see that? In manufacturing, tech and community jobs you see the money stay in the community, the family’s grow, the churches become stronger the community becomes a great place to live. I have lived in places like this theme park. I wasvery happy to find this place with the safe parks and place for my kids and family to live.I am very disappointed to even see this on the table. It is great to hope for possibilities. To do that with considering what may happen in the end is almost as crazy as the promises we are all laughing at. Sketchy at best.

  • Greatfulmary

    Spring hill theme park. I was sold on Dinwiddie’s original “Hi tech”, manufacturing and small corporate model he campaigned on. Beyond that, I’m not a big fan of a broad mixed use zoning for such a large parcel on the east side of Spring Hill. We need to be more cautious with mixed use zoning. It can open up things even crazier than this. I really liked the idea of manufacturing, tech jobs, small manufacturing. Diversity is the key to longevity. Coming up with zoning that allows for multiple mid sized corporate headquarters, smaller manufacturing and a broader diversity will help to shoulder the impacts during tough times and enable us to sustain our growth while broadening and growing the tax base. The impacts and burden to the community are minimized and the backlash is manageable. This all your eggs in one basket idea is a bit risky and a bit old school thinking for the trends we have seen in the current markets. Didn’t we learn anything from Saturn. I think overall it was a great thing for Spring Hill. But in the end the lesson should be to not count on the one basket of eggs. Lets move forward. Diversify and be sure that the mix use doesn’t bring us giant theme parks based on sketchy ideas, adult type entertainment, unsafe manufacturing or visual blight. I do think it is not so far fetched to look at smaller corporations here, logistics or small tech schools or training facilites. Let’s imagine the infill back toward the Nissan head quarters. There is much more long term potential in that. It looks good in the community and we all would be proud to start our kids thinking along those lines for future employment.

  • Oglesby1

    please bring bush gardens to spring hill!

  • Dave in Franklin