A California company led by a former chairman of the Georgia Lottery says it is considering Bartow County for a nearly half-billion dollar theme park geared to video gamers that would feature movie-quality special effects.
Avatron USA Development has filed plans with regional planners for Avatron Smart Park, a special effects-driven resort and attraction to be built on a 700-plus-acre site near Emerson and Cartersville. Avatron Chairman and CEO David Garrett, a developer and founding chairman of the lottery, said his firm has an option to acquire the site.
The property along Paga Mine Road is adjacent to the sprawling LakePoint Sporting Community complex and town center along I-75, about 40 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.
The Avatron park would feature attractions with special effects that “will be like being inside a video game,” Garrett said. A website for the company outlines attractions within the park, including zones labeled as New Earth, Holoverse and Dino-Time.
The developers are focused on the Bartow site, Garrett said, but the company also is evaluating other states.
“We’re not playing games; we’re certainly focused on Georgia,” Garrett said. “But until a deal’s a deal it’s not a deal.”
Garrett said his group has worked on the project for more than a year, but he described development plans as being in the “very early” stage. The company needed to approach local and regional planners before it could go any further and to meet an ambitious development timeline.
“To open by 2018, we need to get going this year,” he said. The first phase is expected to involve about 200 acres and cost about $480 million, he said.
In a filing Tuesday to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the company described a “totally immersive, technology driven theme park drawing on the expertise of Hollywood’s leading visual effects professionals.” The project also would include two hotels, retail and a music venue.
The details are included in a Development of Regional Impact notice, a filing aimed at alerting the Atlanta Regional Commission and neighboring governments of large projects so that they can prepare for potential effects such as traffic and demand for schools and other services.
Garrett said he could not discuss financing, but said that too is in progress. The company projects the attraction could employ more than 1,000 people.
Messages left for Emerson city officials were not immediately returned.
The regional planning filing states that the project could be eligible tax breaks under the Georgia Tourism Tax Act, which offers incentives for certain new or expanded attractions.
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