Construction, which started in June, is well under way at Old Tucson Studios' Heritage Project.
The addition will be a 5,000-square-foot spread with three new streets lined with 12 new buildings.
The project will provide movie-quality sets with the look and depth of a genuine town, Old Tucson CEO and General Manager Pete Mangelsdorf has said. Production designer Gene Rudolf ("Young Guns II," "The Right Stuff") is leading the design and construction of the sets.
Mangelsdorf, who said Old Tucson is funding the project on its own, would not specify the budget, but he said it was in the "hundreds of thousands" of dollars.
The main part of the exterior construction should be done by late September, he said. The interiors are scheduled to be finished by mid-November.
The new sets will also be used for staging "living history" presentations on topics such as schools of the frontier and sheriffs of the Old West, the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau said in a newsletter. A new Native American village at Old Tucson will house cultural displays and a garden of foods traditionally grown by the Tohono O'odham, the bureau added.
IF YOU GO
For the duration of construction, into November, the theme park at 201 S. Kinney Road will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Learn more at OldTucson.com
