Cypress Gardens and Wild Adventures will be sold to satisfy Chapter 11

This can not necessarily have a good outcome for the park. Having visited Cypress Gardens in the fall of 2005, I was very pleased with the park. But, that could very easily change under new ownership.

uh oh, from all the TRs they had a great park, I am anxious to see how this one turns up.

Yay for insurance.

Wow. This must be a sucky surprise for the parks owner. I remember how excited he was about opening CG a few years ago, as if it was a dream of his. I agree that depending on the buyer, it could be a big negative for the parks.

I feel bad for the owner and his huge loss.

I'm not sure, but could this be another investment company. Ya know.. The same company that bought the land that Darien Lake and Frontier City. It doesn't say Buescher will stop running the parks.

There is no surprise for Buscher here. I'm sure this has been in the works for a long time. Seeing as how he'll still be running it for the foreseeable future, I don't think it's as big of a deal as it seems. Perhaps if he wins his claims from the insurance companies, he can regain ownership at a later time.

I'm sorry to say I saw this coming. Seeing the numbers when he filed for bankruptcy, I believe I expressed my concern about just this eventuality. I wish I had been wrong.

Now we have to hope for some angel to swoop in and save this park from the condo developers. It's such a shame because Cypress Gardens has such a great history. It has far and away the best botanical gardens I've ever seen at an amusement park; the banyan tree is, in my opinion, one of the wonders of the western hemisphere. Not to mention, it had one of the nicest, most accommodating staff of any park.

Sigh.

I'm not sure I would count the condo developers in quite yet, given the current real estate mess across the country. That, coupled with some of the agreements made with the state, may protect the park for a while. But, as far as operations, this is something that needs to be watched. I don't really see any of the big players interested right now, as CF is busy with the Paramount operations, Six Flags just got over selling off a bunch of parks, Annheiser Busch already owned the park once and sold it off, and Disney is already a big player just North of there (not that any of these would be serious contenders anyways...)

Hmmm...

Adventures Parks Group is selling Cypress Gardens and Wild Adventures to satisfy the requirements of their Chapter 11 filing.

The buyer or buyers have not been identified, but the sale is supposed to happen on September 25.

Kent Buescher says there will be no changes in staff, schedule, or operations.

I wonder if the buyer is a new operating company headed up by Kent Buescher...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Exactly Dave, Kents not giving up the company, Just making it look like it on paper.

Chuck

Unless somebody outbids him.

There will never be condos on cypress gardens. The lands has conservation easements on it protecting the park from development . They are held by the City of Winter Haven (30 acres that contain the botanical gardens), and the rest is owned by the State of Florida, and possibly part by Polk County. I does seem like a legal slight of hand. I heard on the news today the minimum bid for both parks is $53 Million.