MarbleLIVE’s planned theme park, to open in 2016, features a retractable roof and promises 365 days of summer.
By: Hugh Smith
While it may not seem like summer is around the corner, warm weather may be closer than you think.
Toronto could soon be host to 365 days of summer.
That’s the goal of the team at marbleLIVE, a group dedicated to bringing an indoor and outdoor water park and theme park to the Toronto area.
John Barrack, the managing partner at marbleLIVE, teamed up with a group from marblemedia to conduct heavy research on the feasibility of a water park in Toronto.
“The overwhelming conclusion from our research was there’s just not enough to do in the GTA,” said Barrack. “This is an attempt to answer that need.”
The response is a planned 100,000 square foot water park with a retractable roof, allowing it to stay open year-round. Construction for the park will begin in 2015, with the goal of opening by the fall of 2016. Barrack says that while the name has not been announced, it will reflect the theme of the project: 365 days of summer.
Mark Bishop, co-CEO of marblemedia, said the park will be bringing a new digital media experience to its guests. He said that the guests will be able to use digital and social media to customize and enhance their experience of the park before, during and after their visit. Bishop said the park will integrate digital media in a way that will allow guests to customize the way they interact with the park.
“We really think it will fill out the experience and give them a layer of customization using digital media technology that they really haven’t seen before,” said Bishop.
Barrack said the main reason he became involved with the project was because of his son.
“I have three young boys,” Barrack said. “And one of them looked at me one day when we were down in the States at a water park and said ‘why don’t we have something like this in Toronto?’”
Like Barrack, Bishop thinks that the GTA has a major need for more big attractions. As an example, Bishop points to the fact that, aside from Ripley’s Aquarium, Toronto hasn’t had a new major attraction since Canada’s Wonderland opened in 1981.
“We do really feel that the time is right and we’re overdue for something like this for the GTA.”