The Miami Herald is reporting that Merlin Entertainments Group is building a Legoland park in Central Florida. The shuttered Cypress Gardens theme park and botanical garden will undergo a makeover to become the new Legoland.
With up to 50 new rides, shows and attractions, it will be the biggest of five Legolands worldwide. The park is packaged to entice parents and kids 2 to 12 years old to spend a day immersed in a world that revolves around plastic Lego bricks, one of the world's most popular toys.
The plans include reopening the historic botanical garden that founders Dick and Julie Pope carved out of a cypress swamp in 1936 and fashioned into what was claimed to be Florida's first theme park. The once-famous water ski shows could return in the form of a Lego-themed stunt show, and the park will get its own studio with a full-time staff of Lego model artists. Cypress Gardens' leftover midway thrill rides and one or both of its wooden roller coasters will be sold.
The Legoland location in Carlsbad, California reportedly gets 2 million visitors a year. Legoland also has locations in Denmark, Germany and the UK.
Playthingssays the Legoland in Central Florida will be the second biggest Legoland in the world when it opens in 2011.
The Miami Herald is 
