CARVER – Edaville Family Theme Park is planning to make some significant changes, including the potential addition of housing units on the property.
Edaville property owner Jon Delli Priscoli spoke at a recent Carver Select Board meeting to give an update on future plans for reinventing the family attraction.
Priscoli said that Edaville will only focus on Christmas moving forward.
“It’s going to be turned into something like you see in Europe, which is a Bavarian Christmas market,” he said, adding the holiday season has traditionally made up 60 to 70% of the park’s business.
The Christmas market would open in November and December and feature crafters and vendors. Priscoli said Edaville would no longer be open year-round.
Priscoli stated that there are no plans for Thomas Land to return.
“We’ve come to the conclusion that Thomas and that whole concept really has not worked,” he said, citing troubles with the park’s branding partner.
Priscoli said the last few years have been challenging for Edaville since COVID-19 restrictions left amusement parks as one of the last places to reopen in Massachusetts.
Priscoli said changes to the park also include introducing 40B rental housing units, which he said would solve a need for affordable housing in Carver.
Project officials said they hoped the select board would support their application to the state, making it a “friendly 40B.”
The 336 apartments would consist of 182 1-bedroom units, 119 2-bedroom units, and 35 3-bedroom units with 25% of the apartments at an affordable rate of 80% Area Median Income.
In addition to the rental units, the park would also feature an open space component that would be open to apartment residents and the public.
Priscoli said that a public water supply has been approved by the state but wastewater infrastructure would need to be built for the units.
Although Priscoli owns the Edaville property, a sale of the theme park was reported back in August.
The select board decided to schedule a site walk with Priscoli before making any decisions on whether they would move forward with supporting the 40B application process.
By Brian Engles, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
About Brian Engles
