Florida Will Get CityWalk of Its Own

Buoyed by what it says is the booming success of Universal CityWalk, MCA Inc. announced on Wednesday that it is building an even bigger version in Orlando, Fla.

Scheduled for completion in 1999, this CityWalk spinoff, to be called the E-Zone, is part of a $2-billion-plus expansion of Universal Studios Florida to be completed in the next six years by MCA and its British joint venture partner, the Rank Organisation.

The E-Zone will include a 12-acre complex--half again as big as CityWalk--featuring a Hard Rock Cafe, stores, movie theaters and restaurants, said Jim Canfield, vice president public relations for Universal Studios Florida.

The Florida version of CityWalk gives MCA a chance to correct what San Pedro theme park consultant Harrison Price says is one of the few flaws of CityWalk--it’s not big enough.

Price, who has worked for MCA, said that when combined with theme parks, a hyped-up mall complex such as CityWalk “works like a slot machine,” drawing people almost automatically, he said.

Ron Bension, chairman of MCA Recreation Services Group, said MCA now has global ambitions for the CityWalk concept, which it hopes to develop in several spots. A $1.5-billion theme park scheduled for completion in 1999 in Osaka Bay in Japan is a likely next locale, he said.

Earthmoving machines have been tearing up land for several months on the Orlando site.

The machinery is constructing an aspect of Los Angeles’ geography that Orlando lacks, namely, a hill, Bension said. The E-Zone will not end up with a panoramic view like CityWalk’s, but it will sit on a slight artificial rise and be “one of the tallest components” in what will eventually be 800 acres of theme parks, golf courses and hotels, Bension said.

For the Florida rendition, MCA has dispensed with the historical Los Angeles theme on which the exaggerated architecture of CityWalk is based. Instead, MCA is using a so-called “Floridan theme,” Bension said.

That theme is described as a hodgepodge of Southern plant life, cuisine and music. “A lot of water and lush landscaping” will allude to the Florida backdrop, said Bension, adding “you will also see a lot of neon.”

However, at least three E-Zone restaurants will recall not Orlando but New Orleans. For example, B.B. King’s Blues Club will be a chief attraction.