A 70-foot metal frame, under construction at LA ProPoint Inc.’s Sun Valley workshop and destined for an overseas theme park, is a sign of things to come for the designer and builder of stage and show systems. When finished, the frame will lift something big – Vice President Jim Hartman won’t say what because it’s a showbiz secret – at Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.’s new theme park in Abu Dhabi. The tower is a piece of “show action equipment,” a type of attraction that requires complicated mechanical engineering to build. And until now, LA ProPoint has had to outsource that work. But with increasing demand for show action equipment in the booming theme park industry, LA ProPoint has hired 30-year veteran and mechanical engineer John Torres, a past employee who now brings serious cache with him as an engineer with experience on theme parks for Burbank’s Walt Disney Co. and Universal Studios in Universal City. In his new job, Torres will make the complex calculations needed to build the large, moving pieces that can bring in between $2 million and $3 million each in revenue, Hartman said. The company is bidding on five of them this year. “It will allow us to go after the large mechanical show action projects,” he added. “Large companies like Disney and Universal like the fact that we can bring this in house. It saves them money and makes us more competitive with other companies that already have professional engineers on board.” Being able to compete on mechanical and moving show action projects will also open more markets to LA ProPoint, such as retail centers in foreign countries that use attractions to compete against ecommerce sites for consumer dollars. It’s a good time to be in the theme parks and attractions business as it’s experiencing its strongest growth ever, said industry veteran Dennis Speigel, president of consulting firm International Theme Park Services in Cincinnati. “(Show action equipment) is the biggest growth segment in the industry,” Speigel said. “People are looking for participatory and kinetic (attractions). They don’t want passive experiences.” According to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions in Alexandria, Va., the trade organization for the $40 billion global industry, more than 170 new attractions are set to open this year in the U.S. and Canada alone. LA ProPoint sees some of that new construction coming its way already. It anticipates roughly a 25 percent increase in revenue this year, Hartman explained. Torres, along with the promotion of John Williams to a new position as creative director, will help LA ProPoint get there, he added. In his new role, Williams will meet directly with an increasing number of creative customers. “Even our existing clients will be looking to us to do more,” Hartman said. – Carol Lawrence
