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Agreement Signed for Theme Park at QEC

ABU DHABI — Oryx Holdings, a Qatari based diversified group and Six Flags, Inc., one of the largest, most widely recognised theme park operators in the world, will create a Six Flags branded theme park within the Qatar Entertainment City (QEC), a mixed use development in Lusail to be opened by mid-2012.

In this regard a signing ceremony took place in Doha which was attended by Assam Shaikh vice-chairman and managing director, Oryx Holdings; Mark Shapiro, president and CEO, Six Flags; and Yousef Darwish, general manager, Qatar Entertainment City.

Under the binding agreement, Six Flags will provide concept development and planning services to Oryx Holdings for the creation of a 50,000 square metre Six Flags branded location within QEC.

Once this initial phase is finalised, Six Flags and Oryx Holdings will collaborate on the detailed design, development, construction and management of the branded location.

Qatar Entertainment City (QEC), an award-winning project, is the first project being implemented under the ‘Entertainment City’ concept — developed by Abu Dhabi Investment House.

The project is a holistic, fully integrated family entertainment destination covering a total area of 1 million square metres of development and 180,000 square metres of international leisure, retail entertainment and restaurants situated with a waterfront location.

Oryx Holdings vice-chairman and managing director Assam Shaikh said, “Six Flags brings 47 years of theme park industry experience and a world renowned entertainment brand to create a best in class tourist destination within QEC.”

He said that the partnership will help further establish and push Qatar’s initiatives for family tourism, attracting investments as well as keeping in-line with its growing economy. For the implementation, Qatari resources will be sought in all elements of the project as and when available.”

· haseebhaider@khaleejtimes.com