Universal Epic Universe (South Expansion Complex) - Opens May 22 2025

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Bob Harlem

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Topic for Universal Epic Universe
official page: https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/theme-parks/epic-universe
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Original post
Universal Orlando acquired more land today and settled a lawsuit that blocked them from developing new theme parks on the 500 acres they have down there. With this agreement they also required roughly another 500 acres in an area adjacent to the Orange County Convention Center and International Drive, and a relatively quick hop away from the airport.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busi...al-acquires-more-property-20180412-story.html

This is enough room for 2 new "dry" theme parks, a water park, shopping district and resort hotels. There are rumors of a custom transportation route between this and the existing Universal Resort, but no firm details. (Busses will still be there as an option with or without it) Although talk of this has been rumored for years, the settlement really sends a green light to the project. Grading and site prep will likely start immediately.

1523560289090.png

In the image above, blue was what Universal owned before the settlement, red is what it acquired, and the green outline represents the immediate site prep/grading plans. (Which will likely expand soon) The blue section along Sand Lake Road is slated for back of house style support buildings. The southern red area wraps around Rosen Shingle Creek Resort and Golf Course, which will likely become part of the overall resort either as a partner, or directly.
 
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MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Animaniac93-98 said:
That's 3x the size of Disneyland Resort.
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raven said:
Compare it to the size of the current property in the upper left of the photo. This land is huge.
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Pssst. I was making a joke.

Corey P said:
The shape disturbs me. LOL> How are you going to make a themed area with real life things all over the place at every corner? I'm sure there is a bigger plan going on. Any ways this is getting interesting. I think that golf course will be Universal's soon BTW.
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Even the things that stick out from this blob are pretty big. Big enough for a resort, a parking garage, the new shopping district, golf course, a water park, etc...
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Here's the reverse angle view. Universal with it's 2 theme parks + backstage + parking + water park + 6ish resorts = 634 acres (the orange, purple, yellow, grey below).

Plus 42 acres for the two new resorts (green) over the old Wet & Wild: ~42 acres.

Compared to the 1.5k acres of the new land in red.

1523623103300.png
 
Oriolesmagic

Oriolesmagic

Well-Known Member
As someone whose office is literally right next to the largest portion of the land that Universal just purchased, (Coincidentally, I work for Golf Channel which is also owned by Universal so you can add a little more space to what Universal owns around the area) I'm very interested to learn about Universal's plans to provide transportation between the two areas of land. Would it be a simple bus system? Or is there something larger in the works???
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Oriolesmagic said:
As someone whose office is literally right next to the largest portion of the land that Universal just purchased, (Coincidentally, I work for Golf Channel which is also owned by Universal so you can add a little more space to what Universal owns around the area) I'm very interested to learn about Universal's plans to provide transportation between the two areas of land. Would it be a simple bus system? Or is there something larger in the works???
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Interestingly, your Golf Channel building is on a site that is not owned by Universal or Comcast.
 
Oriolesmagic

Oriolesmagic

Well-Known Member
MisterPenguin said:
Interestingly, your Golf Channel building is on a site that is not owned by Universal or Comcast.
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That is interesting. It's part of a larger business campus, so I suppose that makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up!

Still curious about the transportation aspect of this move though. I would imagine there are multiple plans that Universal is considering but it will be interesting to see how it all falls into place.
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Oriolesmagic said:
That is interesting. It's part of a larger business campus, so I suppose that makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up!

Still curious about the transportation aspect of this move though. I would imagine there are multiple plans that Universal is considering but it will be interesting to see how it all falls into place.
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I don't see how it can be anything but buses galore.

The six resorts by USO and IoA rely on buses (or boat) to get to places. They're not on a single track (train, monorail, gondola). Then the two new resorts on old W&W are also not on any track, and so, they rely on buses.

So, what good would a transit line be between the new and old parks be if the resorts still have to bus/boat to a central terminal to get on the inter-park transit?

The new land has the possibility of creating a transit loop to connect everything and have a bus terminal to and from everything else. But the legacy sites weren't built with that in mind and a retrofit just seems incredibly arduous at this point.
 
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Bob Harlem

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
MisterPenguin said:
I don't see how it can be anything but buses galore.

The six resorts by USO and IoA rely on buses (or boat) to get to places. They're not on a single track (train, monorail, gondola). Then the two new resorts on old W&W are also not on any track, and so, they rely on buses.

So, what good would a transit line be between the new and old parks be if the resorts still have to bus/boat to a central terminal to get on the inter-park transit?

The new land has the possibility of creating a transit loop to connect everything and have a bus terminal to and from everything else. But the legacy sites weren't built with that in mind and a retrofit just seems incredibly arduous at this point.
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For what its worth the plans submitted to the City of Orlando this week for the eastern wet n wild resort have a considerable block of space for a "future transit stop" independent of the regular bus area.

1523642697492.png
 
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bhg469

bhg469

Well-Known Member
Oriolesmagic said:
As someone whose office is literally right next to the largest portion of the land that Universal just purchased, (Coincidentally, I work for Golf Channel which is also owned by Universal so you can add a little more space to what Universal owns around the area) I'm very interested to learn about Universal's plans to provide transportation between the two areas of land. Would it be a simple bus system? Or is there something larger in the works???
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Marni hinted at something very interesting but was nowhere close to specific. He did rule out Gondolas. Apparently they laughed at the idea of using them.
 
JoeCamel

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
Corey P said:
The shape disturbs me. LOL> How are you going to make a themed area with real life things all over the place at every corner? I'm sure there is a bigger plan going on. Any ways this is getting interesting. I think that golf course will be Universal's soon BTW.
Click to expand...
There is a core of 600+ acres that will be the site of most of the new build. It is large enough for CW 2.0, Hotels, a park or two, garages, back end stuff, new Universal headquarters, etc. The outer parcels may not be developed and could be used as offsets for water plans. The core is what we will be watching for the next 5 years as it is where the action happens.
 
trr1

trr1

Well-Known Member
I thought this article was interesting this is just a snippet

Universal gets its way and acquires more land near I-Drive for future theme parks
After years of speculation, Universal Studios has now secured the additional property that crisscrossed their southern property. The purchase also includes the long sought after deed rights that had previously blocked Universal from building a theme park on the property.

Ironically, the property was previously owned by Universal Studios but sold it in 2003 when its former parent company, Vivendi, was struggling financially (around the same time Vivendi began talks to sell Universal to NBC which happened less than a year later).

The 1,800 acres were sold to Georgia developer Stan Thomas for $70 million, but Universal ensured it wouldn’t be facing any competition by placing a deed on the property banning large-scale amusement uses, including theme parks. Before selling the property, Universal had submitted plans to Orange County for a third theme park, 2 18-hole golf courses, 2 million square feet of retail, and more than 10,000 hotel and timeshare units.
 
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