LEGOLAND TO OPEN £265m NEW YORK THEME PARK

MERLIN Entertainments is to invest £265m in opening a Legoland theme park in New York as it presses ahead with global expansion.

The owner of Madame Tussauds and Alton Towers said that the new Legoland will open in 2020, about 60 miles north-west of the Big Apple.

The resort will create over 1,000 US jobs, and 800 construction jobs. Merlin also said it would build Legoland parks in South Korea, with plans for further parks in China.

Boss Nick Varney said: ‘It is our largest investment in a single park to date, and our third Legoland Park in North America.’

Earlier this month Merlin’s stock dived after a difficult summer for its London attractions and UK theme parks – group like-for-like revenue growth almost ground to a halt.

Its London attractions, which include the Coca-Cola London Eye and the London Dungeons, saw a marked drop in visitors after the recent terrorist attacks, while the theme parks also suffered in a ‘difficult’ market after the UK’s threat level was raised.