Hasbro wants to take its toys out of stores. The company will open an amusement park in Mexico City , which will be called Hasbro City , and whose construction so far has required an investment of close to 16 million dollars, which VXT Negocios disbursed through its investment fund. VXT Capital, a company that has the construction license for the parks.
Matt Proulx, vice president of location-based entertainment at Hasbro Inc., commented that Hasbro City will be located in Interlomas, in the State of Mexico , and will feature about 24 attractions from its iconic brands, such as Monopoly, Transformers and My Little Pony. . And, although the investment is not direct from the toy company, they are immersed in the park development project.
“We are licensing our brands for use within this facility. Our goal, through this agreement, is to support Hasbro City. Therefore, we have a dedicated team of location-based entertainment professionals working on the planning, operations and marketing of the overall facility.”
What is known about the Hasbro theme park
For now, the company has not confirmed an opening date for the park, which will have an area of 9,000 square meters , but Prouix announced that it is possible that visitors can live an experience to “transport” from Earth to Cybertron, the planet of Origin of Optimus Prime and the Autobots, characters from the Transformers franchise.
And that’s not all. It will also feature attractions geared towards My Little Pony fans, so they can have an up-close experience with their favorite characters, as well as consider other brands such as Monopoly, Power Rangers, Potato Head and Nerf, among others.
“These are brands that have a great heritage, but have never come to life in an attractive space for the Mexican consumer. To date, for people to want to experience Transformers, for example, they had to travel outside the country,” he declares. “It’s about creating those opportunities for fans to engage more with our brands,” he adds.
Regarding security in Hasbro City , which has become one of the focuses of attention due to the incidents that have occurred in some amusement parks in Mexico City, the company declared that special attention has been paid to hiring a team with appropriate experience in the operations and day-to-day running of these facilities.
“We have teams of consultants who will look at all security protocols and operating standards to ensure security is once again at the forefront of the experience. We take it very, very seriously,” he shares.
The reality is that the Mexican market is attractive for this sector. In 2021, the amusement and arcade parks registered 14,629 economic units. The states with the largest number of companies in this category were the State of Mexico, with 2,660; Michoacán with 1,459, and Puebla with 1,132, according to data compiled by Data México.
First Mexico, then Latin America
Hasbro City Mexico will be the beginning of the deployment of the company’s strategy, which seeks to open 12 parks in other Latin American countries in the next decade, a project that has an investment of between 60 and 75 million dollars.
And Mexico is still in the equation. For now, the toy company and the investment fund are analyzing other locations and cities to have a continued expansion of the parks within the country, after the first one cuts the opening bar.
Meanwhile, the parks in Latin America, of which no further details on possible locations were offered, will operate under the same license agreement between Hasbro and VXT Business.
Globally, the amusement park industry was worth $42.68 billion in 2021, and is expected to grow to $70 billion this year, with a compound annual rate (CARG, which measures return on investment) of 64.1 %, according to data from Research and Markets.
