Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 25, 1994 TAG: 9410250098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER AND BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
No one can say how remote that possibility might be, but Boucher has said he will push a site in eastern Wythe County near Interstates 81 and 77.
Nearly 2,500 acres of land in two tracts were purchased in 1988 and 1990 by former Roanoker Jack Weaver of Weaver Enterprises Inc., based in Clearwater, Fla.
Several other speculators from North Carolina and South Carolina bought tracts in the area this month without even coming to see them. Those purchases came on the heels of Disney's announcement that it would not build its planned theme park in Prince William County but might put one elsewhere in Virginia.
Boucher told a reporter last week that there are four possibilities regarding a Disney theme park in Virginia.
Disney might simply decide not to build a theme park, he said. Or it might instead be considering acquisition of or investment in a television network, according to some speculation.
A third possibility is that the company will not look anywhere but in the area outside Washington, where the original park was planned, to take advantage of Dulles International Airport and highway traffic there.
The remaining possibility is that Disney meant what it said about looking elsewhere in Virginia. On the basis of that possibility, Boucher said, the intersection of the two interstate corridors, which also is close to the heavily traveled Blue Ridge Parkway, should have a strong potential for being chosen. The parkway draws 2.2 million tourists annually.
According to statistics obtained by the Wytheville-Wythe-Bland Chamber of Commerce, an estimated 40,000 vehicles per day pass through Wythe County on those interstate highways.
Boucher said he thinks the prospect of a theme park of some kind in that area is good, even if it is not Disney that develops it.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***