Price tag for amusement park leases revealed
Six Flags Entertainment Corp. disclosed that it will pay about $23 million to buy the lease rights to operate five amusement parks, including Frontier City and White Water Bay in Oklahoma City.
In a filing with regulators, the firm said that price was subject to “customary adjustments.” The deal with Oklahoma City-based Premier Parks LLC is expected to close next month, Six Flags said.
The other parks in the deal are water parks in Phoenix and Houston and Darien Lake, a 1,000-acre property near Buffalo, New York, that includes an amusement park, water park, hotel, campground and large amphitheater.
The deal announced this week brings full circle some of the principals and places involved.
The five parks are owned by EPR Properties, which bought them and seven other theme parks last year. Premier Parks LLC has continued to operate the parks EPR Properties bought last year.
Premier Parks LLC Chairman and CEO Kieran Burke formerly was the CEO of Six Flags, and several other former Six Flags executives work for Premier Parks LLC.
Burke was leading Oklahoma City-based Premier Parks Inc. in 1998 when it acquired Six Flags from Time Warner in a $1.9 billion transaction. Six Flags, which Burke took public through a stock offering, moved its corporate headquarters to Oklahoma City.
Burke was removed as CEO of Six Flags in 2005. The company soon sold Frontier City and White Water Bay and moved its headquarters from Oklahoma City to New York City.
In 2009, Six Flags declared bankruptcy and emerged under new controlling ownership. That same year, Burke formed Premier Parks LLC in Oklahoma City.