Wonder if it's getting to the point where the expenses and outstanding bills of the project make it unfeasible even if other factors suddenly made it favourable? Where you need to put so much money in it just to get back to zero that nobody would touch either it or the site, apart from the occasional future debt vulture?
I can't think of any theme park projects having gone that way before, but there certainly are building projects like that out there. My personal favourite example is Dubai Pearl, a planned skyscraper in Dubai whose construction began in 2004. Then shortly after, it was halted, what was built was torn down, the tower was redesigned, construction started anew, it halted again, and nothing has happened on the site since 2009 or so. That is, unless you count the dismantling of the last cranes in 2016.
The construction site is in an absolutely top-notch prime location in Dubai. Close to the city's main highway, close to two metro stations, with a view right down the "trunk" of one of those spectacular palm-tree peninsulas they built down there. A perfect place to build what was planned there. But after thirteen years of problems, the project has racked up a debt of USD 2.2 billion, the constructions that were abandoned in 2009 would have to be torn down, and ground works possibly done over again. Just to get the site back to square one would cost 3-4 billion dollars, and that's the minimum investment required to be able to do anything with the plot whatsoever. They went from having nothing, to having started something, to not being able to continue, and now they have several billion dollars less than nothing. A building there would probably make tons of money, it has a very good location in the middle of a booming city, but it wouldn't be able to recuperate both the investment cost and the getting-back-to-zero cost. As such, one of the most lucrative construction projects in the world is currently completely unfeasible, and it has been passed from owner to owner over the years without anything done on site.
I don't think The London Resort has racked up quite those levels of debt yet, but I bet its baggage is already starting to shave the potential profit margins. It's hard enough to convince investors that a park will begin to make money in ten years' time. But if that number is increased to twenty years to account for debt that needs to be serviced, most interested people would begin to look for better projects to place their money.
I can't think of any theme park projects having gone that way before, but there certainly are building projects like that out there. My personal favourite example is Dubai Pearl, a planned skyscraper in Dubai whose construction began in 2004. Then shortly after, it was halted, what was built was torn down, the tower was redesigned, construction started anew, it halted again, and nothing has happened on the site since 2009 or so. That is, unless you count the dismantling of the last cranes in 2016.
The construction site is in an absolutely top-notch prime location in Dubai. Close to the city's main highway, close to two metro stations, with a view right down the "trunk" of one of those spectacular palm-tree peninsulas they built down there. A perfect place to build what was planned there. But after thirteen years of problems, the project has racked up a debt of USD 2.2 billion, the constructions that were abandoned in 2009 would have to be torn down, and ground works possibly done over again. Just to get the site back to square one would cost 3-4 billion dollars, and that's the minimum investment required to be able to do anything with the plot whatsoever. They went from having nothing, to having started something, to not being able to continue, and now they have several billion dollars less than nothing. A building there would probably make tons of money, it has a very good location in the middle of a booming city, but it wouldn't be able to recuperate both the investment cost and the getting-back-to-zero cost. As such, one of the most lucrative construction projects in the world is currently completely unfeasible, and it has been passed from owner to owner over the years without anything done on site.
I don't think The London Resort has racked up quite those levels of debt yet, but I bet its baggage is already starting to shave the potential profit margins. It's hard enough to convince investors that a park will begin to make money in ten years' time. But if that number is increased to twenty years to account for debt that needs to be serviced, most interested people would begin to look for better projects to place their money.
