All great ideas have to start somewhere. Maybe you've always loved the idea of owning your own theme park someday. Perhaps your a seasoned veteran of the industry wanting to push the envelope by having your own place. Do you already own an FEC, amusement park or theme park and want to see it improved?

Of course, it takes more than just an idea. If you're serious about moving forward, there are several things that need to be considered. Location, Target Market, and Budget are the big three. The Size and Style of your park will be determined by those 3 things. We can not stress enough the importance of a good site for your plans to succeed. There have been too many projects that have never materialized because of the location. We know of one developer developer who abandoned his dream after a 20 year fight to build a theme park on his land because the city never would give him the zoning approval. Another development spent in excess of $20 million while never getting their zoning approvals. The community absolutely must support you. Your location will need to be away from residences (they hate the noise) and where traffic won't be an issue, but not so out of the way that it's hard to get to. If the city feels that they will be having to throw $$ at road improvements because of you, they won't budge on allowing the zoning unless they're 100% confident that you'll be successful. We can't stress enough the importance of location. Did we mention LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION??

When it comes time for you to approach investors, they will want to see a very detailed business plan, a collection of conceptual artwork and layouts describing the project, and typically they'll want to see that you and your partners have invested in the project yourselves. They will also want to see experienced management, as well as your willingness to accept experts on your board.

The business plan is something easy for you to start working on and doesn't require any money to do. It just takes time. A lot of demographic data is available free, chamber of commerce's specifically are usually a good source. You'll need traffic counts, age and spending habits of potential guests within different radius', etc. There's a lot of number crunching to do, but it at least is something you can do without spending anything. This research will help guide you in finding the appropriate LOCATION.

So, you want to build a theme park. Or maybe your sights are set on a Family Entertainment Center, or even a themed restaurant. While this page is geared towards towards new park develoments, it really applies to any themed entertainment venue, new or existing.