Universal to open Texas theme park for young kids

Universal Parks & Resorts is bringing a theme park to Texas that will focus on entertaining young children, officials announced Wednesday.

The “one-of-a-kind” park in the Dallas suburb of Frisco will include attractions, interactive shows and opportunities for meet-and-greets with characters, the company said in a news release.

It is expected to be about a quarter of the size of the company’s large Orlando theme parks, according to Page Thompson, the company’s president of new ventures.

“Even though it may be smaller in terms of acreage than our other parks, the quality of it, the level, worthy of the Universal name,” Thompson said during a news conference in Frisco.

Universal Parks & Resorts recently purchased 97 acres, where the park and a 300-room hotel will be located, officials said.

Also on Wednesday, the company announced a new permanent entertainment experience in Las Vegas that will “bring to life Universal’s vast library of classic horror films and today’s most terrifying tales,” according to a news release from the company.

The company said this is the first time it has created “a permanent horror experience beyond its theme parks.” The experience will occupy a 110,000-square-foot space. It will be the anchor tenant in a new 20-acre expansion of the city’s AREA15 entertainment district, which opened to the public in 2020.

The company didn’t give a timetable for when the projects will be completed.

Universal Parks & Resorts, part of Comcast NBCUniversal, has theme parks around the world, including Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort in the US. In 2021, the company opened a theme park in Beijing, becoming the company’s fifth park worldwide. There are also parks in Japan and Singapore.