ORLANDO, Fla. – Local attractions designers are taking the word “attraction” to a whole new level.
They're creating a themed land for people to actually live in, perhaps influencing the future of the industry.
Here are a few things to know about ITEC Entertainment’s themed community, The Forestias.
- Orlando-based ITEC Entertainment creates themed dining, entertainment spaces, and theme parks all over the planet. But a particular one that they're building in Bangkok, Thailand is unlike anything they've done before. That's because of a new kind of demand. “We've gotten, in these days, more and more into what people consider mixed used development,” ITEC President & CEO Bill Coan said.
- This themed land will soon welcome 10,000 residents. “They came to us to write a story,” Coan said. “We created that place built around a story, much like we'd do a theme park ... We want them to imagine a place like nothing else they've ever seen before.”
- “We, Bill and I, we came up with a story of how to connect the forest to the family,” said Paitoon Ratanasirintrawoot, Coan's team member who is actually from Thailand. “This project is the catalyst of change for the new wave of developing a project of this size.”
- “We're going to pump in sounds of animals, crickets,” Ratanasirintrawoot said of the multi-generational concept design. An interesting feature is that the lobby isn't where you'd think it'd be. It's up in the treetops in a built-from-scratch forest. “So think about this,” Coan said, smiling. “Instead of being in a penthouse, the most desirable condo is the one down on the floor where you're in the forest.”
- Phase 1 of The Forestias will be completed by 2021. The entire project should take about three years.