Controversial Holy Land Attraction Plans $35M Expansion

ORLANDO-Holy Land Experience, a 15-acre, $16 million museum attraction near Walt Disney World that nobody expected to survive after its controversial February 2001 opening, plans to break ground by fall 2003 on a $35 million expansion.

Marvin J. Rosenthal, president of Zion’s Hope Inc., previously based in Philadelphia, wants to add a replica of Noah’s Ark with live animals; an exhibit on creationism; and a 1,600-seat outdoor theater to the ministry’s property at Conroy Road and Interstate 4 in south Orlando.

Rosenthal, a Baptist minister who converted from Judaism, didn’t return a GlobeSt.com phone call and e-mail message that sought further details on the expansion. But construction industry estimators working in the south Orlando attraction submarket tell GlobeSt.com the project expects to be completed by year end 2004.