05/31/2007

Theme park idea excites Grayling

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

smcwhirter@record-eagle.com

GRAYLING — There's no Main Street in this little northern Michigan community. But one is on the way.

Plans are afoot for state officials to sell 1,800 acres of public land in Crawford County for development of a $160 million theme park called Main Street America.

"We were looking for a location that transitions through all four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter, and Grayling does that nicely,” said Patrick Crosson, project manager for Axiom Entertainment of Rochester.

Axiom is a private, entertainment-based marketing company retained by Main Street America to help develop the project in Crawford County. Officials refused to identify project investors.

The company has also worked on television, film, Internet and magazine projects.

Axiom intends to build a year-round family amusement park a few miles south of Grayling and hire 2,000 employees, 700 at full-time status. It's the company's first amusement park venture, one company officials hope will become a multi-day destination for visitors and locals in northern Michigan, Crosson said.

"The minute it opens the doors, it will be the biggest tourist attraction in the state,” said Terry Wright, supervisor in Grayling Township, where the theme park is planned at an existing vacant industrial park along Four Mile Road.

Crosson said the park eventually could be operated entirely from renewable energy sources, with as many as 200 windmills planned for the complex, situated near the highest points in Crawford County.

Attractions will include roller coasters, a water park, indoor surfing, snowmobile and race car tracks, snowboarding areas, a working farm, a 200-acre campground, an amphitheater, a hotel and plenty of shopping. Construction could begin this year with a partial park opening in the summer of 2010, local officials said.

"That would really be something, but there are some rungs to climb first,” said Curt Jansen.

He's chairman of the Grayling Township Planning Commission, which on Tuesday unanimously approved a concept plan for the theme park that essentially asks the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to sell the state land to the developer.

"It's been sitting there for eight years and hasn't done anything. If somebody has a plan, let them at it,” Jansen said.

He said the project's site plan review is expected in phases, along with park construction on land set aside for future industrial or commercial uses in a partnership among the state, township and the Crawford County Economic Development Partnership.

"The opportunities here are not just the theme park. Other businesses are going to come here. I see opportunities for downtown Grayling,” said Gaila Gilliland, director of the CCEDP. "I think it's just going to pop, totally pop.”

A resounding economic impact is expected to hit Grayling, Crawford County and all the surrounding communities, with more hotels, restaurants and other satellite businesses inevitably drawn to the area. Everyone agrees about that, which is why careful community planning is a priority, especially regarding utility and traffic infrastructure, Jansen said.

"It's going to bring its own set of problems, but I don't think it's worse than what we've already got with the unemployment,” he said.

An appraisal of the land must now be contracted and completed, which will take at least a couple of months, said David Freed, DNR chief of land and facilities.

Property sale negotiations will then begin with Axiom, he said.