Massive All-Season Water Park to Make a Splash in Toronto

By Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

Development group marbleLIVE is developing a 100,000-square-foot, year-round indoor/outdoor water park and event complex in the Greater Toronto Area.

Coined by its developer as “365 days of summer,” the recreation and entertainment venue will feature a retractable roof, wave pools, watersides, lazy rivers, splash pads, a sandy beach, as well as cabanas. Plans also call for party rooms, restaurants and spaces for live events.

marbleLIVE, which is led by Toronto entrepreneur John Barrack and marblemedia, one of Canada’s leading multiplatform content creators, will invest $60 million in the development of the new facility. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2015 and wrap up by the fall of 2016.

Upon completion, the all-season project would fill a considerable gap in the GTA’s underserved tourism market, which hasn’t seen the development of a similar entertainment and recreation theme park since the opening of Canada’s Wonderland in 1981.

“People in the GTA are hungry for new entertainment experiences,” John Barrack, managing partner for marbleLIVE, said in a news release. “We’re going to give them a dynamic year-round attraction that’s part-water-park, part-theme-park and all fun, all the time.”

“This attraction will be far from your typical waterpark. We are going to bring our company’s expertise in digital media and storytelling to create a purpose built digital media experience that will be the first attraction of its kind,” added Mark Bishop, co-CEO of marblemedia.

The developers have yet to select the site of the new development, which could be located in Mississauga or Toronto.

“We now have a short-list of three locations. Our final decision will be based on our intricate design and operational needs, as well as visitor accessibility,” added Barrack.

Once fully operational, the all-ages entertainment complex would create 230 full-time jobs. The project is also expected to boost the tourism industry in the GTA by attracting more than half a million visitors within its first year of operation.

“marbleLIVE would provide visitors and guests with an additional attraction adding to our industry’s growing list of new, expanded and reinvigorated products,” said David Whitaker – president & CEO of Tourism Toronto.  “The combination of a water-themed venue combined with an impressive event space will also give meeting and event planners more options that will help distinguish us as well.”

Besides Barrack and Bishop, the marbleLIVE development group also includes New Jersey-based Jerry Merola of Amusement Entertainment L.L.C. and EFA Partners of New York.

marblemedia’s multiplatform content is seen in more than 120 countries, with leading broadcast partners worldwide such as Disney XD, Nickelodeon, YTV and BBC.