Hard Rock Cafe International is to work with FHTP LLC, a group developing a new theme park at Fantasy Harbour in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA.

Leading the scheme is entertainment producer and FHTP chair, Jon Binkowski, who expects to release more details about the intellectual properties associated with the park over the coming months, and says the site will feature rides and shows that celebrate music and its cultural connections.

As well as fun and entertainment, Binkowski explains that the new park will resemble the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando in that it will also provide “oases of calm”.

The Hard Rock Park, which he describes as following a regional model, has been two years in development. FHTP settled on Myrtle Beach because of its predisposition to family entertainment and strong drive market, thus avoiding the tourism fluctuations that often hit fly-to destinations.

“Myrtle Beach welsomes 13 million visitors a year,” Binkowski says, “and it loves Hard Rock. Hard Rock has some 112 cafés and Myrtle Beach is number five in revenue terms.”

He says FHTP is in the final throes of the funding process and the local planning commission has endorsed plans to rezone 142 acres at Fantasy Island for the park, which should open in 2005.

The new theme park would further extend the reach of the Hard Rock brand, which is already applied to cafés, hotels and casinos.