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2. London Paramount Entertainment Resort

Location: Swanscombe, United Kingdom
Opening date: Spring 2020
Current status: In planning

London Paramount Entertainment Resort was originally announced in October 2012, but it initially hit a series of obstacles that were both mundane and bizarre (including a nest of rare jumping spiders being found – and then being safely removed – from the future construction site).

More recently, however, the resort was granted the title of “Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project” by the British government (the first project to receive such a designation), which allows its developer, London Resort Company Holdings, to report directly to the secretary of state rather than go through various local authorities.  And just this past month, initial government approval has been issued, meaning that the development process is well and truly underway.

As previously reported, London Resort Company is looking to create a full-fledged resort that is even more expansive than Disneyland Resort Paris, including an indoor water park, a sprawling dining/shopping/entertainment district, sporting facilities, “creative space,” service buildings, 5,000 hotel rooms, and, even, a staff training academy.  The whole £2 billion project will be situated on Swanscombe Peninsula (not unlike Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio), on the site of a former cement works.

The latest development may not necessarily be the most expansive or informative, but it is nonetheless the most exciting yet – a sneak peek into Paramount London’s attractions and park layout (not to be confused with its Spain counterpart’s concept art blowout), which Disney and More has been nice enough to post on its site.

Arguably the centerpiece of the park is Plaza Futura, which will largely be dedicated to the perennial Star Trek franchise.  The recently-released concept artwork shows a post-modern Starfleet Academy building, suggesting that Paramount London will be basing the land off of the recent J.J. Abrams films (which were released in 2009 and 2013) as opposed to the traditional Trek franchise (which started on the small screen in 1966 and didn’t die out until 2005); for better or worse, Abrams and company opted to eschew Gene Roddenberry’s distinctive aesthetic for a sleeker – but also more pedestrian – look that seems more at home with, say, Minority Report.

Given that Abrams also opted to drop the franchise’s characteristic scientific interests in favor of endless Star Wars-style action sequences, the decision to use the newer incarnation may be the more appropriate for a theme park – particularly given London Resort’s choice to devote both a motion simulator and a launched roller coaster to the IP.

The real meat and potatoes of the project, however, has less to do with concept renderings and more with ambition.  London Resort Company Holdings has already boasted that the themed resort will be the “best entertainment attraction in Europe” and is already expected to bring in some 15 million guests in its very first year.

If such a grandiose claim can come true, Paramount London would instantly eclipse Disney’s perpetually struggling French property – and a new race for European dominance would most likely ensue, given the Disney Company’s reluctance to cede any territory anywhere on the planet.

The pace of development on London Paramount Entertainment Resort is expected to exponentially pick up as the August 2015 deadline for a planning application approaches.  Once construction finally commences in 2016, it will proceed in a four-year phased timetable, with a grand opening currently scheduled for Easter 2020.

 
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