Is Grayling to be the Home of an Amusement Park?
Andrew Norton
There are rumors flying around that Grayling might some day be home to an amusement park called Main Street USA. 1,800 acres of state-owned land along I-75 just south of Grayling have been available for commercial or industrial development for the past five years. Axiom Entertainment has had discussions with state officials regarding the possible development of the land into a theme park. Estimates put the number of potential workers at around 2,000 seasonal employees and 700 year-round. Potential customer traffic is estimated at 1.7 million annual visitors. I am not sure how this is determined, but for comparison purposes Muskegon's Michigan Adventure theme park drew 550,000 visitors in 2005.
It is unknown how many of the 1,800 acres would be used for development of the theme park. Michigan's Adventure is located on 250 acres and offers over 40 rides and attractions. Cedar Point (another Cedar Fair L.L.P. property) stands on 365 acres and features over 60 rides and attractions and drew 3.1 million visitors last year.
Courtesy of the Bay City Times
The Bay City Times dug up information about this deal through a Freedom of Information Act request.