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Posted Oct 2, 2025, 11:25 PM
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Join Date: May 2023
Location: NASHVILLE, Tennessee
Posts: 2,184
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$6.5 billion tourist attraction proposed in Horn Lake
Quote:
Horn Lake could soon become home to one of the world’s largest international tourist attractions.
Baron Storm, an international entrepreneur who is involved in film, television, publishing, and real estate, announced plans this week to build a $6.5 billion tourist attraction on the land where Elvis Presley spent his honeymoon and once rode horses in-between movie roles to relax.
The project, which is being developed by Supervision Entertainment, will be called Magic Gardens and will include a 4,200 room condominium hotel, multiple convention centers, two water parks, aquarium, aviary, amphitheater, performing arts center, and a 100,000 square foot stadium. The project will also be the new home of the Unknown Child Foundation and will preserve the history of Elvis’ Circle G Ranch.
The property is just 15 minutes from the center of Memphis and Memphis International Airport and minutes from Graceland and the home of Elvis Presley.
“This has been in the works for many years now,” Storm said. “It’s just a question of putting all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together to make it work. But it is a very exciting time.”
Storm said Magic Gardens will be built on the Circle G Ranch property which is over 200 acres and the adjacent acreage known as the Dancy property.
“It’s just under 600 acres combined,” Storm said.
Storm said the project is subject to financing, which is being completed through a Limited Partnership which allows individuals, organizations and institutional investors to participate.
“The work is ongoing and we have several major potential partners in this enterprise,” Storm said.
Magic Gardens is being designed by the same international and award winning architects that designed Gardens By the Bay in Singapore. That attraction is now the eighth most popular tourist attraction in the world with over 220 million visitors and revenue of $5.4 billion.
Storm said he was inspired by Gardens By the Bay and wanted to build a similar attraction in the United States.
“Basically it’s a magnificent botanical garden,” Storm said. “We are using the same architects that created that. The mandate that we have given them was to make it bigger, better, and more exciting. And that’s what they are doing. This is designed as a global attraction.”
Storm said building the hotel condos and two convention centers will be the first step in getting the project underway. The hotel will have 4,200 rooms, making it bigger than the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville at 3,200 rooms.
Units will be priced between $465,000 to $3.5 million for the penthouse. Storm said investors in those units will share in the nightly revenues.
“The hotel will be one of the finest in the United States,” Storm said. “And it is a condo hotel, so all of the units are available for sale. We anticipate an occupancy rate of close to 95 percent because of the stadium, two convention centers, and the attractions.”
He said sales of the condos could generate as much as $7.3 billion in revenue. All of the condos will have a view of the 40 acre lake located on the Dancy property. The lake will feature fountains and a laser light and hologram show each night.
“If you can imagine this, every night at 9 p.m. all of the lights across the entire resort will be dimmed and you will have the music from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (Also Sprach Zarathustra) that Elvis used to enter his live shows,” Storm said. “Then the entire 40-acre lake becomes a show with lasers, water fountains, and a 50 foot hologram. We’re talking to Elvis Presley Enterprises about maybe using his likeness and image.”
Storm said the condos are already starting to generate some buzz. He’s already received over 18,000 responses so far to the project.
“One of the things that is attracting a lot of attention now is the condos,” Storm said.
Storm said the second phase of the project will entail construction of a 100,000 seat stadium that will be similar in size to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and will be capable of hosting everything from Olympic games, International Rugby, to NFL and other professional sports events, as well as major concerts, trade shows, rodeos, and conventions. The stadium will have its own full television and broadcast center with the capability to “Live Stream” content 24/7 on a global basis.
“We want to make it really state-of-the-art,” Storm said. “And what’s different about this is that it will allow us to be able to beam events around the word from whatever is going on in the stadium.”
Naming rights for the stadium are expected to surpass $650 million over ten years, Storm said.
Magic Gardens will also have two 1,000,000 square foot water parks. The largest water park will be called Space Park and the other will be called Jurassic Park.
“One shows the future and one shows the past,” Storm said.
Other features of the development will include the world’s largest aviary with over 10,000 exotic birds; a massive aquarium similar in design to ones in Atlanta and Dubai that will show the importance of tropical fish and coral reefs; an orchid house with over 7,000 varieties of the world’s rarest plants; several outdoor amphitheaters for music festivals; theme parks with thrill rides; and a 3,500 seat performing arts center for symphonic, ballet, and opera performances as well as classic performances, which will also be live streamed around the world.
“I would love to name that the Elvis Presley Performing Arts Center,” Storm said. “That’s something I would really like to do because I am an Elvis fan.”
And speaking of Elvis, Storm said the development will pay homage to the King of Rock ’n’ Roll by preserving the history of the Circle G Ranch. Plans call to restore the original cottage on the property where Elvis and Priscilla spent their honeymoon. Elvis bought the property, which is only 10 miles from Graceland, in 1967 after seeing a giant illuminated white cross overlooking a tranquil lake while on a motorcycle ride. He named it Circle G in honor of his mother Gladys and acquired horses and cattle and used the ranch to escape the limelight. Elvis sold the ranch in 1972.
“The honeymoon cottage is still there but is in a pretty sad state,” Storm said. “What I would like to do is preserve that and bring it back to its original condition for people to visit. A lot of people come now just to look at the fields because Elvis used to ride his horses here. We have had visitors from over 17 countries.”
Storm said he has also offered about five acres to the Unknown Child Foundation to use as a museum that will tell the story of the 1.5 million unknown children who lost their lives in the Holocaust. The DeSoto County Museum currently has an exhibit honoring the children featuring a portion of the 1.5 million pennies that were collected by schoolchildren in DeSoto County to represent each child who perished.
“I’ve offered to relocate that on a three to five acre site in the project to create a beautiful new building on the south end of the Elvis lake,” Storm said. “It would be quite beautiful and surrounded by gardens and water fountains.”
Storm said he spent three years searching for a potential site for Magic Gardens but was impressed by Horn Lake and DeSoto County because of its agricultural history and the property’s ties to Elvis.
“We short-listed five sites which had to meet 35 criteria that we needed in order to green light the project,” Storm said. “But the thing that really surprised me in this area is the extension service agricultural programs in Mississippi that is second to none. Every county has an extension office where you can ask questions about plants and all sorts of agricultural topics. That impressed me.”
Storm said he was also impressed by the local politicians who showed interest and embraced the project.
“Part of those 35 criteria is to have that local support,” Storm said. “The previous administration of Mayor Allen Latimer and the Board of Aldermen were instrumental in gaining the approval process. I’ve met with the new mayor, Jimmy Stokes, and the city attorney and they are also supportive. This is the kind of thing you need to have.”
Stokes confirmed that he has met with Storm about the project, but hasn’t seen any concrete plans come through the city’s planning department yet.
“He talked to the city attorney and I. He met with the planning department about all the things that have to be done,” Stokes said. “As of now it hasn’t gone through the proper procedure yet. We haven’t pushed it yet because it has to go through the planning department. There are still some land ownership issues. Without that, we’re not going to say it is a go just yet.”
Stokes said while he likes the idea and agrees that the land has a lot of potential for a big project, he is still waiting for more details to fall into place before endorsing the project.
“We’re still waiting to see more legitimacy to it first,” Stokes said. “We just want to make sure there is meat on the bone. I don’t think it is good to get people all excited yet until they have fulfilled the basics. I don’t like to do window shopping. I want to see some good meat on the bone and the preparation stage done right and go from there.”
Magic Gardens is expected to attract 5-10 million visitors a year and create 8,000 to 10,000 new jobs in the area when fully developed.
Storm said they hope to start the site work in 2026 or before.
“It’s a lot of money,” Storm said. “But we don’t need all of that upfront to start the project. It’s like having a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. We’re down to the last few pieces. There are still some hurdles left to jump, but that is par for the course with a project this size. But we have the best architects in the world and a lot of things are coming together. I think in 2026 you will see some exciting things happening on that property.”
https://www.desototimes.com/news/6-5-bil...6563375-d6c7-4afc-ac05-4365cd247b3d.html
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