Carlsbad Is 1 of 2 Finalists for $100-Million Lego Park

SAN DIEGO —  Lego Systems, the Scandinavia-based manufacturer of children’s interlocking blocks, announced this week that Carlsbad is one of two finalists for a new 200-acre, $100-million theme park and resort complex.

The park would be the first of its kind in the United States. Lego operates an enormous theme park near the company’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark, and in December, company officials announced plans to build a second Lego park in Windsor, England, near London.

Carlsbad’s competition is Prince William County, Va., where officials have set aside 1,780 acres for mixed-use development about 22 miles south of the nation’s capital.

If constructed in Carlsbad, the park would be open by the end of the decade and employ 750 to 1,300 residents, said Dan Pegg, president of the San Diego Economic Development Corp.

Pegg said the mild San Diego County climate--which would make the park a year-round draw--greatly enhances its chances of successfully wooing Lego.

Pegg and other officials herald the possibility of being selected for the theme park as a reason for glee, given the area’s sagging tourism industry and its glut of new, but largely unoccupied, hotel rooms from the international border to Orange County.

San Diego business and civic leaders said the park, which could attract as many as 1.5 million visitors a year, would help buffer the county’s slumping economy from defense spending cuts that threaten local military bases and manufacturing centers.

Lego spokesman David M. Lafrennie said the decision of whether to opt for Carlsbad or Virginia will be made by June or July.

Lafrennie said the park, like its Danish counterpart, will appeal to children between the ages of 1 1/2 and 13, and that “everything in the park will be made of Lego bricks or made to look like Lego bricks.”

The proposed park will borrow heavily from the Denmark facility, attended by more than 1 million people a year. The park includes Lego-like replicas of Mt. Rushmore, the space shuttle and the Statue of Liberty, crafted from tens of millions of plastic blocks.