Nashville native and comedian Nate Bargatze has revealed the first rendering for his proposed $350 million Nashville-area theme park, a project being developed through Nateland Experiences, an arm of Bargatze’s Nateland company.
Bargatze and California-based design firm Storyland Studios first announced plans for the project in November. The two groups are working together to develop the park, which is expected to be built somewhere in the Nashville metro area.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the project team has selected a site and secured most of the required land through an investor. However, the exact location has not been publicly disclosed. A spokesperson for the project did not answer questions from the Nashville Business Journal about where the site is located.
Mel McGowen, founder and chief creative officer of Storyland Studios, previously told the Business Journal that the team was looking for a site within about an hour’s drive of Nashville.
The project could also receive support through state and local tax incentives. Stuart McWhorter, Tennessee’s deputy governor and commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, told The Wall Street Journal that projects receiving incentives must fit with Tennessee’s “heartland” and “middle America” identity.
“What Nate represents aligns with our state,” McWhorter told the publication.
Bargatze has reportedly been pitching the project to influential and wealthy Nashville-area figures. John Ingram, the billionaire owner of Nashville SC, described the concept to The Wall Street Journal as “something a little more wholesome than the debauchery of downtown.”
Nateland has also retained Nashville-based lobbying firm Jigsaw as its state lobbyist.
Bargatze, known nationally for his clean stand-up comedy, is currently the highest-earning comedian in the world, according to Pollstar. His first movie, The Breadwinner, which he wrote and stars in, is scheduled for release this month.
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