SINGAPORE: Iskandar Malaysia will house Asia's first Lego's Model Shop to design and make models for the Legoland in Nusajaya.

The model shop will produce 15,000 models that would make up the country's first Lego theme park in Medini Iskandar.

The theme park, the fifth of its kind in the world, is scheduled to completed in 2012.

Iskandar Investment Berhad president and chief executive officer Arlida Ariff said the construction of the model shop, with a total floor area of 2,300 square metres (25,000 sq ft), would begin in August.

"The first phase of the Model Shop's construction will be done in October. It is located at the southern industrial and Logistics Clusters in Nusajaya," she said on Wednesday.

Arlida also said the Model Shop would begin recruiting apprentices and the final assessment would be in July.

Six qualified apprentices would be short-listed and sent to California, the United States, in August for training.

She said the six would assist the Lego Master Model Builders, who are Lego certified professional designers and artists, to train another 40 apprentices who would join the Model Shop in October.

"Aspiring model makers must possess sound technical knowledge or background in steel works, design reading and actual brick building experience," said Arlida.

Legoland Malaysia is expected to create about 1,000 jobs in the park, while up to 5,000 jobs will be created during its construction, as well as in the related retail trade, hospitality, services and food and beverage sectors.

The entire project will include a shopping centre, offices, hotels and residential units costing a total of more than RM3.5 billion to develop.

The country's Legoland, which will be designed and operated by the Merlin Entertainments Group Ltd, was announced in December with a planned investment of RM750 million.

Its location -20 minutes from the Second Link - is expected to draw tourists from Singapore.