ORLANDO, Fla. – Tank America is moving its car-crushing military adventure park westward from rural Melbourne to a 14-acre wooded site in Orlando.
“Tank America is excited to announce we are moving to a new location. To help facilitate our relocation, we are no longer taking reservations. Our new home will be open in early 2022,” the company website says. “We look forward to seeing you on the battlefield soon!”
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Tank America opened in April 2018 at the former National Guard armory on Ellis Road, near John Rodes Boulevard, News 6 partner Florida Today reported.
The business offers Abbot FV433 self-propelled artillery drives along a forested ¾-mile course with sharp turns, obstacles and a mud hole. Other attractions included a 6,000-square-foot tactical laser tag arena and the opportunity to drive over — and crush — a clunker car with the FV433.
“Hopefully, we’re making a better experience for our customers by building a track from scratch — and getting closer to the tourists. That’s the reason for setting up shop over there,” said John Kinney, who co-owns Tank America with Troy Lotane.
“We’ll be incorporating some new fun obstacles, as well as things like the mud hole that we have here,” he said.
Kinney said more than half of Tank America’s customers are tourists who are visiting Central Florida attractions such as Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Orlando Resort.
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“Right now, being located over an hour from all that makes it a little challenging for them to make their way over to us,” Kinney said.
The future address is 1920 Tilden Ave. in unincorporated Orlando, off State Road 50, roughly midway between State Road 417 and Lake Baldwin.
Kinney said construction in Orlando will start soon. The new facility will not offer laser tag, and he said company officials will focus on tank-driving operations.
Tank America’s owners faced a fight to open at the old armory. In May 2017, the Melbourne Planning and Zoning Board recommended denial of a zoning permit, citing noise and safety concerns from nearby homeowners in the Hammock Trace Preserve neighborhood.
The company hired a sound engineer to perform decibel tests and agreed to a list of operating restrictions, and the Melbourne City Council approved the permit in June 2017.