Dubai Busch Gardens, SeaWorld plans canceled

Busch Entertainment Corp. today announced plans to officially end the four amusement park project slated to be built in Dubai. This announcement comes on the heels of the international credit freeze enacted as a result of the global recession, seemingly affecting all major financial institutions.

Original plans called for four Busch-owned parks to be built in Dubai. The parks were to be constructed on a 440-acre island in a group of man-made, palm-tree-shaped islands created by Nakheel PJSC, a government-backed real-estate company that heads much of the construction in Dubai. The other connecting islands were projected to one day hold as many as 56 hotels and shopping centers while housing as many as 280,000 people.

One of the parks detailed in the initial project announcement was Worlds of Discovery, a park that was to have performing killer whales and a man-made island formed in the likeness of SeaWorld's main-stay, Shamu. The park was, at one time, touted by Busch Entertainment President Jim Atchison as a "momentous occasion" that would place Busch brands on a "true global stage."

When asked for comments, Busch spokesman Fred Jacobs said, "As successful as they [Nakheel] are, there's certainly a limit to how far they can extend themselves." He stressed that the Anheuser-Busch takeover by InBev did not affect this decision.

Read LIfthill's previous coverage of the Busch Entertainment Corp. plans for Dubai here. You can add your thoughts on this story to our open comments below.