Cedar Fair purchases two Texas water parks
SANDUSKY — Cedar Fair, the parent company of Cedar Point, is adding two new properties to its portfolio of parks, with an option to buy a third.
The Sandusky-based company announced Thursday its plan to buy two Texas properties from Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, with an option to acquire a third in Kansas City, Kansas. The purchase price is $261 million, plus another $6 million if the Kansas sale goes through.
The two Texas properties include:
• Schlitterbahn Waterpark and Resort New Braunfels, which consists of a large waterpark and hotel, located between Austin and San Antonio. It has been voted Best Water Park in the World by Amusement Today for 21 years.
• Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston, a 26-acre indooroutdoor park located just south of Houston.
The 40-acre Kansas site is home of Schlitterbahn Waterpark Kansas City, which is currently closed. The park was the site of an accident in 2016 in which a 10-year-old boy was killed on a new water slide. Several park executives and contractors were indicted in the boy’s death, although charges were later dropped.
According to the Kansas City Star, the real estate investment trust that holds Schlitterbahn’s Kansas City mortgage warned investors recently that Schlitterbahn might be unable to make debt payments due to the park’s legal troubles.
The deal comes after Schlitterbahn remained mum on its plans for the Kansas City park where Caleb Schwab was decapitated in August 2016 on the 17-story Verruckt slide. The raft he was riding on went airborne and hit a metal pole.
Caleb’s family received nearly $20 million in settlements, and two women who were seriously injured while riding with him settled for an undisclosed amount.
Verruckt — German for “crazy” — never reopened and was torn down last year.
It’s the first major acquisition for Cedar Fair since 2006, when the company purchased Paramount Parks, which included Kings Island, Canada’s Wonderland and numerous other parks.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to bring these two award-winning Texas parks into the Cedar Fair family,” said Richard Zimmerman, Cedar Fair CEO. “These properties represent new markets for us, with attractive demographics in the growing central Texas region, and they align with our strategy to identify compelling opportunities to accelerate our growth and profitability.”
Not including this purchase, Cedar Fair owns 11 amusement parks, including flagship property Cedar Point in Sandusky and Kings Island in Mason, plus three separate-admission water parks.