Conneaut Lake Park sold for $1.2 million

CONNEAUT LAKE — All the pieces and parts of 129-year-old Conneaut Lake Park — the Hotel Conneaut, the Blue Streak roller coaster and nearly 200 acres of property, some of it beachfront — will soon be in the hands of a new owner.

Pittsburgh-based U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Jeffery A. Deller approved the sale Tuesday morning of the publicly owned park, which has been working through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, to Keldon Holdings LLC for $1.2 million. Keldon is a holding company based in the Philadelphia area.

The hearing, held by video conference, was originally scheduled to be conducted as an auction to determine the park’s new owner.

While more than 10 different parties expressed an interest in the property, only Keldon ultimately submitted a bid for all of the park’s assets, said Pittsburgh lawyer Jeanne Lofgren, who represents the Conneaut Lake Park Trustees.

The park did not open for the 2020 season and, because of that lost income, was not expected to open for the 2021 season, she said.

It will be up to the new owners to determine if the Crawford County property continues to operate as an amusement park. Despite some closures during years of financial difficulty, the park has operated as an amusement park since 1892 when it opened as Exposition Park.

Jim Becker, director of Crawford County’s Economic Progress Alliance, which manages the park, said that the new owner intended to continue to invest and improve the park.

In fact, Mr. Becker had said the scheduling of the sale was designed to allow a new owner time to open the park for the upcoming summer season.

“Everything that we have been led to believe is that the park is going to operate as-is. He plans to operate it as an ongoing concern,” Mr. Becker said in an interview Tuesday.

Mr. Becker said he was pleased with the outcome.

“We are excited,” he said. “An economic development agency is not designed to run an amusement park and all associated features. We took it on because it was a regional asset. This was part of the natural return to private-sector hands.”

Trustees already have paid 17 years of back taxes on the park. Ms. Lofgren said proceeds from the sale are expected to satisfy 60% of the remaining debts owed to creditors, none of which voiced objections to the sale.