Legoland Florida, an amusement park coined after the toys, is slated to open in Winter Haven in 2011 and is expected to create hundreds of Florida jobs (click here).

The theme park has opened a Web site to list job opportunities and provide other information at legoland floridaresort.com.

According to TampaBayOnline, three jobs were among the first listings: landscaper-gardener, director of sales and marketing and a systems administrator who would be responsible for computer hardware and software support. No salary information was provided.

About 1,000 jobs will be created by the time the park opens, company officials said in announcing the Florida project in January.

One job unlikely to be listed locally, at least at first, is for modelers of the elaborate Lego displays that are the focal points of the other Legoland parks. An e-mail account at LLFContractors@Legoland.com has been set up for interested contractors.

Legoland Florida will be the largest Legoland. Four are in operation: one in Carlsbad, Calif., and one each in Denmark, Great Britain and Germany. Another is under development in Malaysia, with the opening set for 2012.

Details of the park were announced in a news conference with Florida Governor Charlie Crist and park officials along with news that approximately 1000 jobs will be created by the new park. Merlin purchased the property in February 2009 following Cypress Gardens’s bankruptcy for $23 million.

The park is packaged to entice parents and kids 2 to 12 years old to spend a day immersed in a world that revolves around plastic Lego bricks, one of the world’s most popular toys.

The plans include reopening the historic botanical garden that founders Dick and Julie Pope carved out of a cypress swamp in 1936 and fashioned into what was claimed to be Florida’s first theme park. The once-famous water ski shows could return in the form of a Lego-themed stunt show, and the park will get its own studio with a full-time staff of Lego model artists. Cypress Gardens’ leftover midway thrill rides and one or both of its wooden roller coasters will be sold.

Merlin bought the shuttered park for $22 million and will spend “hundreds of millions of dollars” rebuilding it, said Nick Varney, Merlin’s chief executive officer. He discounted doubters who question whether the park can overcome an off-the-beaten-track location 30 minutes southwest of Orlando, the demise of some predecessors. So far Anheuser-Busch Cos., the owner of Wild Adventures in Valdosta, Ga., and a management group headed by a former Walt Disney Co. executive all struck out trying to make Cypress Gardens profitable.

40-50 attractions are planned for the park based on those at other Legoland parks. Additionally, the historic gardens Cypress Gardens was known for will be maintained as part of the park. The Splash Island Waterpark will also be kept but will be a separately ticketed admission.

Cypress Gardens’ water ski shows and one of its two wooden roller coasters will probably be integrated into the new Legoland as well.

Tags: Jobs

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