Real Estate

Times Square theme park with ‘Mad Men’ bar has been canceled

New Yorkers looking forward to sipping a cocktail at the “Mad Men” lounge in Times Square will have to get their entertainment fixes elsewhere.

Lionsgate and Parques Reunidos’ plans to develop a Big Apple entertainment center featuring a virtual-reality version of the movie “Hunger Games” and a bar based on the hit show “Mad Men” are unrealized.

The project, announced in 2017, was estimated to cost $30 million and take two years to build.

But the site for Lionsgate Entertainment City — at 11 Times Square on the bustling corner of Eighth Avenue and West 42nd Street — remains empty, with no work initiated on the project since it was announced and no grand opening in sight, sources said.

Lionsgate has not given up the dream of entertainment centers around the world. It just won’t be doing it with 11 Times Square partner Parques Reunidos, Spain’s leading leisure-park operator, sources said.





A Lionsgate spokesman confirmed that the filmmaker is still opening an indoor theme park in July on Hengqin, a tourism-focused island near Macao, China, with others planned for the Philippines and South Korea.

A Lionsgate Zone is already open inside Motiongate Dubai.

The company is also pursuing numerous other live ventures with different partners, including two Broadway projects: one based on the TV show “Nashville” and the other on the film “Wonder.”

But the company declined to discuss or comment on 11 Times Square.

When it was announced in 2017, the theme park had been touted as a place where “Hunger Games” and “John Wick” fans could play out their heroic fantasies. Instead, the on-the-Deuce fantasy attraction remains an empty storefront where a red-jacketed peddler stands outside touting tour bus tickets.





The monster 47,892 square feet on the ground, lower level, mezzanine and second floor of 11 Times Square have 125 feet of wraparound frontage with a curved entryway and marquee opposite the bustling Port Authority Bus Terminal.

The 15-year lease for Lionsgate Entertainment City had been negotiated by Parques Reunidos with retail gurus at RKF representing property owners SJP Properties and PGIM. The lease requires Parques Reunidos to pay $7 million per year after a two-year reprieve for construction, as The Post’s Steve Cuozzo reported at the time.

Real estate information site CoStar shows payments are scheduled to start on July 1, 2019, a plan hatched to give the developers plenty of time to build out the complex prior to paying rent.





Perhaps it was too complex. Alas, no building permits were ever obtained.

Parques Reunidos has more than 60 entertainment attractions around the world, and this venue was to be created by its US partner, Palace Entertainment, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Parques Reunidos operates mainly outdoor venues like Lake Compounce, plus zoos and aquariums, whose incomes and seasons are weather dependent. The move to indoor parks was to aid its revenues. Indeed, it went public in 2016 and is the subject of a $700 million bid to take it private by a European group.

A similar Lionsgate Entertainment City had been planned for Parques Reunidos’ headquarters in Madrid, and that is unfulfilled.

Parques Reunidos and Palace never returned messages, while SJP and Lionsgate declined to comment regarding the fate of the long-anticipated themed venue. But now I sure could use a drink at the “Mad Men” lounge.





Share this: