News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 8.5K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 39K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 4.8K     0 

N

Northern Light

Superstar
Member Bio
Joined
May 20, 2007
Messages
31,903
Reaction score
89,516
City News is reporting that a rep for Marineland has registered to lobby the province in service of some type of development activity.


ottawa.citynews.ca

Marineland registers to lobby Ontario government with goal of selling

TORONTO — Marineland has registered to lobby the Ontario government with the goal of selling the park. Andrew Burns, a lawyer who has represented the Niagara Falls, Ont.
ottawa.citynews.ca ottawa.citynews.ca

From the above:

1674618882889.png


I've been hearing rumbles about this site for some time, as I'm sure many have. I know I've asked around a bit here too........ LOL

This is an interesting development and may shake some further info loose.
 
Interesting. The park itself is a bit distant from the core tourist attractions, which makes an alternative tourist use on the site unlikely.

With the negative press of recent years, the ageing sea mammals (that they are now – thankfully – unable to acquire) and the COVID shutdowns, the park just isn’t long for this world. The only thing that might make sense from a tourist-oriented perspective is a music festival grounds, taking advantage of existing plumbing and food service infrastructure, to complete against Berl’s Creek.

I don’t know what would be an ideal development: Niagara isn’t a prime area for industry or logistics these days (that’d be more towards Hamilton), nor does Niagara Falls need more big box retail, negating a Molson Park-style development. So it’d probably be residential.
 
ShonTron said:
Interesting. The park itself is a bit distant from the core tourist attractions, which makes an alternative tourist use on the site unlikely.

With the negative press of recent years, the ageing sea mammals (that they are now – thankfully – unable to acquire) and the COVID shutdowns, the park just isn’t long for this world. The only thing that might make sense from a tourist-oriented perspective is a music festival grounds, taking advantage of existing plumbing and food service infrastructure, to complete against Berl’s Creek.

I don’t know what would be an ideal development: Niagara isn’t a prime area for industry or logistics these days (that’d be more towards Hamilton), nor does Niagara Falls need more big box retail, negating a Molson Park-style development. So it’d probably be residential.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain that there is an intent to retain a tourism-related use on a substantial portion of (or the entire) site.

For reasons I will not publicly disclose now, for the most part...... LOL

However, the lobbyist registry is fair game, so lets look at some of the actual entry, shall we:

1674624308648.png
 
My limited knowledge of activity on this site is this:

Marineland issued out RFPs to planning consultants in late 2019 for essentially a master plan of the site.

The intent at the time (don't know if it still the case) would be to redevelop half the site for mixed-use & multi residential, while the other half would be a reimagined park of some sort.

Curious to see how this evolved in the time since.
 
Canada's Wonderland is one of the busiest parks in NA, I definitely think there could be a market for a second theme park in Ontario. Marineland as it exists today ain't it though.

If it wasn't for Darien Lake, I would say that a medium sized park here could pull from the Buffalo market as well.

A Darien Lake sized park here could probably work, pulling some people from Buffalo and southern Ontario and capitalizing on the tourism market in Niagara.
 
I'd be curious to know if there's a letter of intent in play yet.

I know a couple of the names of those who came by to kick the tires; but I'm not sure who, if anyone, made a clear offer.

****

I can say this, there is some work going on at the site, I don't believe NF has any online permits system, nor am I sure if the work one can see there would necessitate it.

Looks mostly like new service roads going in; I don't believe this would be in service of development in the near term, but possibly in service of site-prep.
 
ProjectEnd said:
If you've never been there, Jake's (Bright Sun Films) tour is a good start:
Click to expand...
Off topically: It's weird that they have to spell out their political take on an issue that's supposed to be advertising for a day of entertainment. Putting aside the poor attempt at indoctrination for me, I would walk away from any amusement facility that puts this stuff on their advertising, even if it's progressive and well thought out it is. As it feels I'm entering someone's agenda, as opposed a place I can escape to with family and friends...

...anywhoose, and back on topic, I think it's suffice to say this place would do better under someone else's hand and care. Even if it means completing turning this into something else, like a real public zoo, an amusement park or a botanical garden. Anything, but this, IMO.
 
Last edited:
It's not actually that far from the main tourist area, the park gates are under 2km from the Marriott hotels and the conventon centre, and less than 1km from the botanical gardens and the old power station which is now a tourist attraction. If it was up to me I'd maybe add another casino resort, some retail, some residential, and I like the festival grounds idea mentioned above
 
ProjectEnd said:
If you've never been there, Jake's (Bright Sun Films) tour is a good start:
Click to expand...

That was really worth watching. I never knew about all the half-completed attractions that never really got finished, including the really weird roller coaster. The layout is awful, which having never been, I didn’t realize. I liked how it didn’t just cover the animal problems too.
 
From Amusement Insiders (yes, the same YouTuber famous for filming Yukon Striker's construction in Canada's Wonderland using a drone):


There's speculation that 100 Kellogg's Lane (which owns an indoor entertainment complex at that address in London, ON) purchased Marineland. The video contains an error (he said Hamilton when 100 Kellogg's Lane is actually in the eastern part of downtown London).
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top