Great America (Santa Clara, California) land sold and set to close within 11 years

[RangerPooh]

I will remember the Demon was my first big (non-Disney) coaster, and the first with a loop. Vertigo was my first standing coaster. Waited in multi-hour long lines with friends or my brother to ride Vertigo, Top Gun, and Rip Roaring Rapids. And when we were little they had Hannah Barberra characters.

 

[bcla]

Yes, that is what I said. But if the tenant doesn't want to terminate the lease, the landlord has to honor it.

Again - the landlord and tenant are the same entity. I would have thought that it would have made more sense for them to unilaterally nix the lease once they bought the land.

 

[bcla]

I will remember the Demon was my first big (non-Disney) coaster, and the first with a loop. Vertigo was my first standing coaster. Waited in multi-hour long lines with friends or my brother to ride Vertigo, Top Gun, and Rip Roaring Rapids. And when we were little they had Hannah Barberra characters.

Marriott's original deal was with Warner Bros.

 

[tvguy]

Again - the landlord and tenant are the same entity. I would have thought that it would have made more sense for them to unilaterally nix the lease once they bought the land.

Well, given what the pandemic did to the Silicon Valley with workers moving away and high tech companies closing down offices, I have to wonder if the land values are declining and they want to make sure they have some revenue stream over the next 11 years.

 

[bcla]

Well, given what the pandemic did to the Silicon Valley with workers moving away and high tech companies closing down offices, I have to wonder if the land values are declining and they want to make sure they have some revenue stream over the next 11 years.

Not sure what's going on. Residential property is still hot in Silicon Valley. Many still want to live there even if they work from home.

I'm wondering if we understand the same thing. The city of Santa Clara owned the land since the 1980s and leased it to a number of operators including Kings Entertainment, Paramount, and Cedar Fair. Cedar Fair bought the land in 2019, making them both the tenant and landlord. I would have thought that they would have just killed the lease, since it creates weird tax issues. I wonder what would happen if a residential tenant buys out the landlord and just keeps the lease in place where they're just paying themselves, but are supposed to pay tax on the rental income. That's the part that didn't make sense to me, although I supposed with a business the rental income and the rental expense cancel each other out.

So now Cedar Fair is selling to Prologis, which is required to lease back for up to 11 years, but it could be sooner.

 

[tvguy]

Not sure what's going on. Residential property is still hot in Silicon Valley. Many still want to live there even if they work from home.

I'm wondering if we understand the same thing. The city of Santa Clara owned the land since the 1980s and leased it to a number of operators including Kings Entertainment, Paramount, and Cedar Fair. Cedar Fair bought the land in 2019, making them both the tenant and landlord. I would have thought that they would have just killed the lease, since it creates weird tax issues. I wonder what would happen if a residential tenant buys out the landlord and just keeps the lease in place where they're just paying themselves, but are supposed to pay tax on the rental income. That's the part that didn't make sense to me, although I supposed with a business the rental income and the rental expense cancel each other out.

So now Cedar Fair is selling to Prologis, which is required to lease back for up to 11 years, but it could be sooner.

Actually, this may be done to avoid weird tax issues. A friend is office manager for a husband and wife that own hundreds of commercial and residential rental properties. They had a lease with themselves for their office in a building they own, and pay themselves rent. My friend says there was some tax advantage to that.
Look at Coca Cola. It runs everything as a separate company for tax purposes. The bottling division makes a profit on bottling the product. The syrup division makes a profit on selling the syrup to the bottling division. The transportation division makes a profit on getting the final product to the store. The marketing division makes a profit on marketing the product. Instead of paying tax on say....$100 profit........the total profit is the same.......but instead of being based on a tax bracket of $100, it is based on a profit o $25, a lower tax bracket, divided among the 4 divisions.

 

[bcla]

The city sold it for $150 million, so Cedar Fair is clearly making a profit from this.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Great-America-Bay-Area-theme-park-to-close-17269722.php​

According to a press release announcing the sale, Cedar Fair is one of the biggest amusement park operators in the world. The firm owns 13 properties, including Knott’s Berry Farm, another cherished California park. Cedar Fair bought the land beneath Great America from the city of Santa Clara in 2019 for $150 million, having leased it previously.​

 

[DodgerGirl]

What I think they are planning to do is gonna try to turn the area where Great America is into a shopping district because as you know malls are huge in the Bay Area and it seems that any time the cities in the Bay Area have big plans to build stuff they always plan to build shopping centers and malls because it seems that malls in the Bay Area draw huge crowds of people from Gilroy and beyond. But what I think will happen is that Great America will not close but another company will buy them and expand the park to add more rides and perhaps add a parking garage for easy parking but if that happens Marriott will possibly buy Great America again and make it more like a Disney park because Santa Clara has about three Marriott owned hotels now one is a Fairfeld Inn and a Residence Inn and the original Santa Clara Marriott is still there but I also wonder if Gilroy Gardens will be effected by this too because the same company owns them as well? But I think it's mainly money loss that has caused Great America to go downhill and lose business and when this happens it means that the theme park will go broke. A similar thing happened in El Paso Texas when they had a amusement park called Western Playland and when it was at it's original spot the park gained lots of visitors for years until they had a huge battle with the city and the mayor and when Western Playland had enough they sold the land and now Western Playland is now in New Mexico and this is a true story my mom told me many moons ago. If you get a chance look up Western Playland El Paso Texas on Google and you'll see what I mean when you read the story. But I think whoever buys Great America to keep it from closing will improve the park to make it better than ever
Dodger

 

[RedAngie]

That park was almost exactly a carbon copy (antiquated adjective?) of Great America north of Chicago when it opened. Similar layout, same rides, etc.

Chicago has been a Six Flags property for over 30 years. I wonder why they bought one but not the other.

One of my favorites at both was a triple-arm ferris wheel.

 

[DodgerGirl]

My dad went to Great America for the first time when he was a teenager when his high school used to take field trips there when it first opened and my dad and his friends had lots of fun there. But I first went to Great America when I was a little girl and my dad's company held a company picnic there and I just liked it and continued to go there many times during my childhood even with my cousins and relatives. My mom used to enjoy their ice shows that made Great America so cool to visit and the ice shows were so well done almost as good as Ice Capades shows. And Great America used to have a good IMAX theater where my family saw many IMAX shows and it was also nice too. If Great America does indeed close I wonder what's gonna happen to their carousel if this happens? Because that carousel was an iconic piece of history as Cinderella Castle is to Walt Disney World. What I also think happened is that Santa Clara was planning to expand Levis Stadium with more easy access parking for visitors and add more stuff like as I mentioned in my previous post shopping malls or even fancy apartments for the business oriented people that work in the area where Great America is. As for Gilroy Gardens I think they will also close and reopen in a few years as a water park like Raging Waters. As we saw when Mall Of America in Minnesota had Camp Snoopy it was a hit but when the Peanuts creator died they sold it and it was under two names and now Nickelodeon owns it now. I think when you take the Peanuts characters and make a huge success sometimes it's alright while sometimes the idea doesn't go as planned and that's why Knott's Berry Farm is still one of Cedar Fair's best theme parks and when they bought Great America Cedar Fair had hoped for the same success