Fresh off the box office success of its “Barbie” movie, toymaker Mattel is planning a second theme park near Kansas City, Kansas, as construction proceeds on its first themed venue near Phoenix that's set to open later this year.

Mattel, based in El Segundo, California, and developer Epic Resort Destinations plan a 2026 opening for the family-themed Mattel Adventure Park in Bonner Springs, Kansas, with a ground-breaking expected later this year. Officials did not disclose development costs, but said in a statement the venue will feature a larger-than-life Barbie Beach House with an “interactive retail experience” where fans can build customized Barbie clothing sets using hologram technology.

Through licensing arrangements with Mattel, Epic is also building an 18-hole mini-golf course, roller coasters and other rides and attractions based on iconic Mattel toys such as Hot Wheels, Masters of the Universe and Thomas the Tank Engine. All elements will also be featured in a Mattel Adventure Park under construction by Epic in the western Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

On its website, Glendale-based Epic posted webcam images of the 9-acre Arizona theme park under construction near State Farm Stadium, home to the NFL’s Cardinals, along with a $1 billion, 60-acre resort with 1,100 rooms under construction by VAI Global Development. Mattel and Epic officials said the year-round Glendale venue, emphasizing desert-centric indoor elements, will be Arizona’s first themed indoor-outdoor amusement park.

The projects come as several national theme park operators, including Disney and NBCUniversal, are seeking to capitalize on the pandemic recovery in attendance by investing significantly in new theme parks and upgrades to existing properties. Park operators are also developing or upgrading their own adjacent hotel and retail venues. 

DoorDash is teaming with technology provider Wing Aviation to test drone deliveries of Wendy’s burgers, the latest quest to make fast-food service even faster while enhancing last-mile logistics.

Starting with select neighborhoods of Christiansburg, Virginia, near Roanoke, Wendy’s customers are now able to order items through the DoorDash app and have them flown in. This is the first U.S. test of a DoorDash-Wing pilot program that was launched in 2022 in Queensland, Australia, that now serves three communities and more than 60 merchants in that region.

The effort is part of San Francisco-based DoorDash’s work in “advancing last-mile logistics by building a multimodal delivery platform that serves all sides of our marketplace,” Harrison Shih, senior director of the company’s DoorDash Labs division, said in a statement.

Cosimo Leipold, head of partnerships at Houston-based Wing, said the Google subsidiary to date has made more than 350,000 drone deliveries in various ventures across three countries, including “tens of thousands” in Australia during the past year with DoorDash. In a Wing company blog post, Leipold said orders arrive in as little as 30 minutes after ordering, with drones traveling about 65 mph and delivering temperature-preserved food items to home doorsteps using a tether.

The first U.S. restaurant taking drone orders in the venture is the Wendy’s at 2355 N. Franklin St. in Christiansburg. The companies are exploring expansion to other U.S. cities later this year, targeting business customers seeking “a quick and sustainable delivery option for small, short-distanced orders,” the statement said.

Companies including Amazon, Walmart and McDonald’s have previously conducted limited tests of drone deliveries of food and other items. While services are expanding, including Wing's work with Walmart in the Dallas area, analysts note that U.S. regulatory approval of wide-scale drone deliveries could still be years away, due to concerns over public safety and aviation security. 

Freddie Mac’s latest national lender survey showed home mortgage rates moved higher for the week ended March 21 after a brief period of declines, capping the week’s mixed bag of news for a shifting housing market.

The government-backed lending agency said 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.87%, up from the prior week’s 6.74% and also higher than the 6.42% average for the comparable week of 2023. Fifteen-year, fixed-rate loans averaged 6.21%, higher than the previous week’s 6.16% and the year-earlier average of 5.68%.

“After decreasing for a couple of weeks, mortgage rates are once again on the upswing,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater said in a statement. “As the spring homebuying season gets underway, existing home inventory has increased slightly and new home construction has picked up.”

Other analysts have reported rising sales of existing single-family homes and rebounding construction of new homes, though prospective buyers, including apartment renters, face lingering challenges, including rising prices and a limited number of listed homes considered affordable. More potential buyers could come off the sidelines as interest rates ease, after the Federal Reserve this month maintained its key lending rate while signaling up to three rate reductions in coming months.

“Despite elevated rates, homebuilders are displaying renewed confidence in the housing market, focusing on the fact that there is a good amount of pent-up demand, an ongoing supply shortage and expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut rates later in the year,” Khater said.