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Jackson Family Museum May Include Golf Course, Amusement Park
December 31, 2009 4:46 PM
Plans to honor late pop icon Michael Jackson and his family's Gary , Ind. roots have expanded to possibly include a golf course and an amusement park with characteristics of Jackson's Neverland Ranch and the former Riverview Park amusement park on the Northwest Side.
The latest addition to plans that already include a Jackson family museum, a performing arts center and a 300-room hotel are slated to be built on about 100 acres of city-owned vacant land along Interstate 94, said Odie Anderson, a south suburban Tinley Park resident who is president of the project.
The museum, performing arts center and hotel likely will be built on 10 acres of city-owned land in downtown Gary, Anderson said.
"Everything is in the planning stages at this point, but we're moving on a fast track and we're looking forward to actually breaking ground sometime in 2010," Anderson said.
The project likely will be built in phases, with the museum, arts center and hotel built first, followed by the golf course and theme park. Then developers might build a monorail system to connect the two areas, Anderson said. If the monorail system was built, he estimates the entire project would cost $1 billion over a 10-year construction period.
Private donors would foot a bulk of the bill, but Anderson said he's also looking to Gary for tax incentives. He would not say how much money has been raised since Gary Mayor Rudy Clay in October announced two new foundations created to raise money for the project.
Project officials still are considering whether to build a replica of the Jackson family home or have a bus tour of the Jackson family's former haunts.
The theme park will have roller coasters, trains and other rides familiar to anyone who sought thrills at Riverview or was a guest at Jackson's Neverland Ranch in California, Anderson said.
"We're trying to extract the best and come up with a combination that made Riverview so attractive for kids of all ages as well as [have] special themes of Neverland that would be reminiscent of the Jacksons," Anderson said.
Some Gary City Council members say they have yet to be briefed on the latest plans.
-- Kristen Schorsch
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/...m-may-include-golf-course-amusement-park.html
December 31, 2009 4:46 PM
Plans to honor late pop icon Michael Jackson and his family's Gary , Ind. roots have expanded to possibly include a golf course and an amusement park with characteristics of Jackson's Neverland Ranch and the former Riverview Park amusement park on the Northwest Side.
The latest addition to plans that already include a Jackson family museum, a performing arts center and a 300-room hotel are slated to be built on about 100 acres of city-owned vacant land along Interstate 94, said Odie Anderson, a south suburban Tinley Park resident who is president of the project.
The museum, performing arts center and hotel likely will be built on 10 acres of city-owned land in downtown Gary, Anderson said.
"Everything is in the planning stages at this point, but we're moving on a fast track and we're looking forward to actually breaking ground sometime in 2010," Anderson said.
The project likely will be built in phases, with the museum, arts center and hotel built first, followed by the golf course and theme park. Then developers might build a monorail system to connect the two areas, Anderson said. If the monorail system was built, he estimates the entire project would cost $1 billion over a 10-year construction period.
Private donors would foot a bulk of the bill, but Anderson said he's also looking to Gary for tax incentives. He would not say how much money has been raised since Gary Mayor Rudy Clay in October announced two new foundations created to raise money for the project.
Project officials still are considering whether to build a replica of the Jackson family home or have a bus tour of the Jackson family's former haunts.
The theme park will have roller coasters, trains and other rides familiar to anyone who sought thrills at Riverview or was a guest at Jackson's Neverland Ranch in California, Anderson said.
"We're trying to extract the best and come up with a combination that made Riverview so attractive for kids of all ages as well as [have] special themes of Neverland that would be reminiscent of the Jacksons," Anderson said.
Some Gary City Council members say they have yet to be briefed on the latest plans.
-- Kristen Schorsch
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/...m-may-include-golf-course-amusement-park.html
