Universal's Permit File for the Coaster Replacing Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit Hits 51 Records and $95.3 Million, and One Is Just for the Signs

Universal is not saying much about the Orlando version of Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. The City of Orlando is.

The work on the old Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit site files under one project code, P830. Search the city's permit database for it and 51 records come back, carrying a combined declared construction value of $95,327,504. No city record names the ride, so the tie between the code and the coaster comes from a separate filing, covered below.

The art Universal released when it announced the Orlando coaster in January. Image: Universal Orlando Resort

One caveat before the numbers: that total is the sum of the estimated cost field across every permit filed under the code, building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire, gas, demolition and engineering. It is what Universal and its contractors have declared to the city, not a budget Universal has published, and trades overlap. Read it as the size of the paperwork, not as the price of the ride.

The newest activity

Two records are driving the file right now.

Permit BLD2026-14782, an alteration to the three story Building 51 covering 26,300 square feet at a declared $3,500,000, was filed on June 3, went to pending issuance on September 2 and was issued on September 3. It took two review cycles. The contractor is PCL Construction Services.

The other one is for signage. Permit BLD2026-17250 is filed against Building 51 with a worktype of Sign, and its declared value is $221,000. It went in on August 25, review started August 31, and it has no issue date yet. The contractor is Sign Producers Inc. of Orlando.

A $221,000 sign package is not a rounding error. It is roughly a sixth of the $1,313,087 Universal declared on the construction permit for Building 51B, and more than seven times the $30,000 electrical alteration filed on the project's maintenance bay in August.

What the file says got built

The big-ticket records sketch the shape of the thing:

Site work, $17,000,000, issued May 2025. Foundation, $5,329,686, issued June 2025. Building 51, three stories and 35,125 square feet, $33,475,839, filed May 2025 and issued October 2025 after nine review cycles. Building 51A, two stories and 39,036 square feet, $20,527,951, issued August 2025. Building 51B, a much smaller 629 square feet, $1,313,087.

There is also a maintenance bay in the file, listed across a mechanical permit at $1,503,055 and a plumbing permit at $1,101,410, both issued the same day in September 2025.

A late entry covers signal rather than structure: ELE2026-14528, a $98,000 low voltage permit named "SPC: P830 PS DAS," issued August 28. A DAS is a distributed antenna system, in-building antennas that carry radio through a building that would otherwise block it. Other Orlando permits spell the same abbreviation out as public safety DAS, the emergency responder radio coverage fire code calls for where a building blocks signal, so the likeliest reading is life safety wiring rather than a guest amenity.

Why P830 is the right file to read

The code has been tied to this project since before the ride had a name. WDW News Today reported in February 2025 that the South Florida Water Management District had approved a Universal permit filed under Project P830 covering 6.27 acres, submitted December 23, 2024 and approved February 19, 2025, described in the filing as removing an existing attraction and replacing it with a proposed one.

Universal announced the Orlando coaster on January 20, 2026. The press release says it replaces the former Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit and promises "the exhilarating sensation of 360-degree drifting," including a 170-foot vertical "spike" that will "send riders nearly 17 stories in the air over the outskirts of Universal CityWalk." It opens in 2027.

Universal Studios Hollywood gets its own version of the coaster first, and that one Universal has talked about. A press release on August 31 said the Hollywood ride opens Wednesday, September 16.

The January release for Orlando ends with a line Universal has not moved off since: "More information about Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will be shared in the months ahead."

The Universal globe at the resort entrance, with Islands of Adventure behind it. Hollywood Drift is going up elsewhere in the resort, on the former Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit footprint at Universal Studios Florida. Image: Universal Orlando Resort

The other thing in the same batch

P830 was not the only Universal record the city moved through in early September. Permit BLD2026-17558, a themed concrete replacement at Islands of Adventure with a declared value of $714,530, was processed on September 4, the same day as the 18,000 square foot demolition permit we wrote about separately. The contractor there is Slalom Construction and Services.

Universal City Development Partners is the property owner of record wherever the city filled that field in, and all 51 P830 records sit in commissioner district 6. They do not all share an address. Forty-seven are filed at 5900 Universal Blvd, three cover the project's site trailer at 6100 Universal Blvd, and the sign permit is at 6825 Universal Studios Plaza on a different parcel.

Sources

City of Orlando Open Data, Permit Applications dataset
Universal Orlando Resort, "Universal Orlando Resort Reveals Its Next Blockbuster Attraction - Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift"
WDW News Today, "South Florida Water Management District Approves Universal Permit for Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit Demolition"

Image credits: Universal Orlando Resort.