Merlin Entertainments is to invest £265m in opening a Legoland theme park in New York as it presses ahead with global expansion. The owner of Madame Tussauds and Alton Towers said that the new Legoland will open in 2020 and be located in Goshen, Orange County, 60 miles north-west of the Big Apple. The resort will create over 1,000 US jobs, in addition to 800 construction jobs in its development phase. The move comes after Merlin also said it would build Legoland parks in South Korea with plans for further parks in China. Boss Nick Varney said: "Legoland New York is the first new major theme park in the North East of the US for several decades, and is perfectly located for visitors from New York, Boston, and Philadelphia and beyond. Its London attractions - which include the Coca-Cola London Eye and the London Dungeons - saw a marked drop-off in visitor numbers after the recent spate of attacks, while the group's theme parks also suffered in a "difficult" market after the UK's threat level was raised.
