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> Cedar Fair, owner and operator of the park, announced on Monday that it has sold the land to Bay Area real estate developer Prologis for $310 million. > Ceda
by sh1mmer 4y ago
> Cedar Fair, owner and operator of the park, announced on Monday that it has sold the land to Bay Area real estate developer Prologis for $310 million.
> Cedar Fair bought the land beneath Great America from the city of Santa Clara in 2019 for $150 million
The quote about the Cedar Fair purchase links to a Mercury News article about the sale:
> The city was forced to sell the property, which it bought in 1985 with money from its former redevelopment agency, as part of a state law that dissolved redevelopment agencies statewide.
> There have been rumors in recent years that another buyer would come along and try to change the property’s use, even though the theme park’s lease wasn’t set to expire until 2074.
So in effect Santa Clara was forced to sell the land to a private corporate which resold it for twice the price after 3 years.
The previous lease didn’t expire until 2074, and presumably was tied to the use as a theme park.
Personally this seems like a big failure to hand a corporation a $150m windfall.
- dehrmann 4y ago> Personally this seems like a big failure to hand a corporation a $150m windfall. I'm not sure what commercial real estate prices have done since 2019, so it's hard to say if the city priced the land right.
- r00fus 4y agoThis is why few good things exist in the US. Too much corruption and really perverse incentives with minimal oversight.
- naturalauction 4y agoWhile $150m does seem like a lot, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of that value was in the lease until 2074 that Cedar Fair changed the terms on (they only get a 6-11 year lease now). Since the area is now prime real-estate, it has a lot more value to a land-owner knowing that they won't have to lease it to an amusement park for another 50 years.