Fierce Pancake

Back when Kieran Burke (former CEO of Six Flags) opted last September to have Cushman and Wakefield put this land on the market, they were confident they could get between $95m-$145m for the property. Rising land value was the primary party line for why they chose to close the park.

Now, eight months later, we find they couldn't get anyone to bite for the land in that range. Further, Six Flags seems to have grown impatient waiting for a buyer so they offloaded it for $77m. If you look at Angel/McIver's site ( http://www.angelmciver.com/ ) it's obvious they aren't a developer but just another real-estate agent middleman. Six Flags also spent about $21m demolishing the place, leaving them with about $56m cash left.

So basically, nothings going on with this property yet, it's basically still on the market. Six Flags gained a quick $56m cash which barely dents their $2+ billion debt and a couple of the old rides are showing up in other parks instead of new attractions (quite a few rides are lost forever and sent to the scrapyard, including Texas Cyclone, Viper, XLR8, Astroway, Bamboo Shoot, Serpent...)

No, there are no substantial rumors of anything going up in the area. It's a shame everyone assumed someone would step right in and take Six Flags place instead of raising more of a stink about Astroworld closing. Further, people need to drop the Disney goggle eyes, because that simply isn't happening.

Kemah Boardwalk is slated to get another ride or two within the next year but don't expect it to blossom into a full fledged amusement park with world class rollercoasters or anything like that. It'll never be much more than a carnival.

Houston is the 10th largest Metroplex in the country and there's no other region with so many people and no amusement park within an hour or two's drive. But these things take years of studies and planning and fundraising. Major theme parks don't pop up overnight. Further, all the big names you're probably familiar with in the industry aren't building parks from scratch (Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Paramount, Anheiser-Busch). All the new parks that have opened or are opening in the US lately have been remodeled existing properties or independant ventures like Hard Rock (South Carolina), Oz (New York), Wild West World (Kansas).

Our best hope would have been for Six Flags to dump Astroworld on another operator. Instead they refused reasonable offers and foolishly wrecked the place believing they could get $25/psf for the land. Well they didn't, and a profitable park was needlessly demolished. The chain has been advertising the remaining parks here now, but I'm curious if anyone here has plans to visit Fiesta or Over Texas instead with the distance, price of transportation, and increased prices at those parks with new management (it costs $15 to PARK at Six Flags Over Texas now). For some reason they were banking the remaining parks would re-absorb the Houston clientele, but I just dont see that as realistic.

Fill the void? These are both waterparks, not really amusement parks in the traditional sense. Pools and water slides not rides. They have their niche and do well but they're a different type of operation.

to get the channels. I consider myself lucky to have what I have! I have a 42" Philips Ambilight plasma with an indoor Zenith ZHDTV1 antenna. I went through 4-5 antennas in all price ranges, and this one works best for me. It has both UHF and VHF, but I just can't get the VHF to work. P***** me off that PBS, with all the good HD content, uses it. Wish I

I put one of these on my dad's TV, it's a great antennae but really only UHF.

To solve the VHF problem I hooked up a coaxial switchbox and have the Zenith on one side and another regular TV antennae on the other side. Flipping it to the standard aerial works fine for PBS, but the Zenith side is definitely better for picking up all the other UHF stations.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/ar...9&Symbol=US:PKS

excerpt:

The Company also announced that it has entered into a contract to sell the 104-acre site of AstroWorld in Houston, Texas. The property - which has been cleared of all buildings, rides and structures in anticipation of sale - is being sold for $77 million; the closing date is expected to be early June. The sale is subject to customary closing conditions.

No buyer yet announced.

Uhhh... this very same thread started by YOU a few days ago answers this.

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...?showtopic=5592

So just to make sure I have it clear, Judge Alex is filmed in Houston in the former Texas Justice studio at Faux 26 correct? So is Texas Justice still in production and if so is it filmed in another studio at 26?

Texas Justice is no longer being made, the production crew has moved to the newer Judge Alex show filmed on the same set.

Yes, the old Texas Justice set was remodeled into the new Judge Alex set here in Houston at the FOX studios off 59. I've been in the Judge Alex audience numerous times.

They film it here because they have the studio space and the crew. Alex flies in every now and then from Florida for the tapings.

Seen a blurb on the TV today that both directions of Spur 527 are finally open.

http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=c2825ff782517bab

Looks as if at least the palm trees were saved and purchased by a local golf course.

Its going to be a really good day when we see on the front of the Chronicle and top story on all news and radio stations that Houston is getting a new theme park.

Doubt anything will be built within Houston. Land is cheaper outside the loop. Bill White had his chance to negotiate with Six Flags, though in fairness there wasn't much he could do if Six Flags had their mind made up that Astroworld gets the slash 'n burn to help pay $2 billion in debt. Didn't help relations much that Six Flags decided to sue the city over the parking situation.

Those f*cking bastards didn't even leave a tree standing. I hope the people responsible for this burn in hell.

Think I counted about three trees left standing.

(although the Walmart could be huge considering they don't need parking because they can use Reliant's parking. Then cover the walkway).

Would you pay $8 - $12 just to park for a Wal-Mart? That's what the city charges to enter these lots.

If its true; ten bucks says its the old sea-arama site

Sea-Arama was around 90th street and Seawall...

http://www.aynart.com/astroworldphoto.htm

Panoramic photo of what the scene looks like currently. Larger version at the link above.

I asked my girlfriend if she thought Houston would ever get an amusement park. She said NO! And the reason why is because Six flags is the only major Amusement Park organization that does business in multiple states.

Other major amusement park companies that do business in multiple states include:

Cedar Fair

Paramount

Anheuser-Busch

Disney

Universal

Silver Dollar City

That's just off the top of my head. Not that any of these organizations have shown any interest to build here, but they exist.

Anabelle's is in the old Fox Diner building, which is the north east corner of Dallas and Taft.

I'm not aware of any construction at this intersection in the last six months other than Gravitas which opened where Antoine's Deli used to be.

At the south west corner is Wild Distributing, which deals in pinball machines, jukeboxes, pool tables etc. That building is apparently up for lease though.

I just ran across this website:

DisneySealey.com

From that site:

I sent letters to James A. Rasulo, Al Weiss, and Lee Cockerell specifically asking if the rumors that Disney would build in Sealy or any other city in Texas were true, and here's what Nick Franklin, Senior Vice President of International Development, wrote back to me in a letter dated 6/24/2005:

"Thank you for your letter to James Rasulo Dated dated June 16, 2005 regarding a potential theme park site in Sealy, Texas.

While we appreciate your consideration of Disney, this opportunity is unfortunately not in keeping with our current investment or development strategy. Nonetheless, thank you for bringing it to our attention and best of luck in your efforts.

Very Truly Yours,

Nick Franklin"

Texas Cyclone was demolished this morning.

But by the way, Six Flags didn't bungle the Houston market, as you put it. It was extremely profitable right up until the end,

The new management of Six Flags seems to realize what a huge mistake the former top guys made when they chose to dismantle Astroworld. It's a slight justice that the guys who turned on Houston (Kieran Burke, James Dannhauser, etc) where all kicked out of office a couple months later.

But yeah, they really did bungle the market. Lack of investment in the property over the last half decade saw considerable decline in attendance and profitability in Houston, not to mention public image. It was still profitable, true, but not impressively so. The place definitely could have, and should have, been turned around. But Six Flags has some serious debt holding them back.

Even with the new guys in charge, the debt issue really constrains them from re-investing heavily in the Houston market so soon. They've got to turn around a failing company before they can do right by Houston again.

This naturally leaves a window of opportunity for some other operator to do something in our region. With Houston, New Orleans, Memphis, and Panama City Beach parks all suddenly defunct in 2005 - that's a lot of area. It seems significant that a small fry operation like Dixie Landing in Baton Rouge's now the largest thing left in a 300 mile radius. I just don't think it will be Disney picking up the reigns. More likely it'll be an independant, much like how Astroworld was built in the first place.

Wow, these rumors persist and persist. Just because Six Flags bungled the Houston market doesn't mean anyone has any plans to open another park here in the immediate future. It takes years to plan, and the closure of Astroworld came as a bit of a surprise to everyone.

For that matter, I really don't expect it to be Disney. They're concentrating on expanding, but in Asia. With major destinations on the east and west coast already, they rather believe they have the USA well covered.

Texas has a large population, but just looking at Six Flags figures, the attendance for the parks in San Antonio and Arlington absolutely pale in comparison to what Six Flags was able to pull in on the east and west coast. Disney could not hope to achieve attendance in Texas of the same magnitude as they get in Southern California, and they've struggled with their newest park out there. It really doesn't make sense for them at this time.

http://www.astroworldauction.com/

First weekend of Jan: equipment, rides, buildings, etc...

The Dentzel Carousel and Steam Engine locomotive are included.

Most people want the new Six flags amuesment park to be near water or along the water in Galveston

If they are planning on rebuilding a new park as they will anyway because this large city wouldn't be left out with no park if its one of the largest cities we have.

People should vote where they should have it for its new location.

Don't kid yourself. Six Flags has no plans to build a new park anywhere, let alone here. They are removing the rides from Astroworld as we speak and other parks around the country are getting ready to absorb them (except Cyclone, which will be soon destroyed). They've let go 90% of the employees, only a handful have been offered jobs to stay with Six Flags.

Honestly, Six Flags has not built a park sinice the 1970s and that was completely different management. The current guys in charge have never built a park and they never will. You can completely discount the notion of a new Six Flags Houston. Splashtown's it now.

For that matter, I'm not aware of anyone else with designs to build a park. We've got a big city here, but none of the big chains are in the business of building new properties from scratch in North America. Your only hope is a smaller indepdant like Tilman Fertitta, but that guy's involved in so many other local projects that a theme park here would compete with. So I don't know who's got the money and the guts to build here but you can bet on one thing, since we lost Six Flags there's going to be a long wait.

So enjoy the Kemah boardwalk, the new Schlitterbahn waterpark, and your travelling carnivals, that's all Houston has on the horizon for years to come.

I was at Astroworld today, and I talked to every single staff member (basically) to understand why its really going down.

there is another thread on this board with some excellent comments on this subject.

another great source would be: http://www.sixflagshouston.com/forums/

it has posts by current/former employees and astroworld/rollercoaster addicts with all sorts of info on the park & it's closing...

I don't think the reason officials have given are valid reasons to close a park that has been with this city for almost 30 years as part of the six flags chain.

Six Flags needs money desperately because they are over $2 billion in debt and doesn't know how to come up with the quick cash other than to continue selling assets. Plus they get to save even more money by putting our used rides in other parks. What more validity do you need?

It's rotten, and Houston gets the shaft, but the guys from Premier Parks who took over SF in 1998 have treated the park like an unwanted child all along. Astroworld was performing well considering how poorly the Premier Parks buffoons cared for the property, it didn't deserve to die like this.

If anyone intends to build a new park its to their advantage to be out in an undeveloped area, away from suburbs (which traditionally complain about noise and expansion) where land is cheap and the risk of sprawl creeping in's minimized. Most successful parks are way out of the way like Cedar Point, Magic Mountain, Great Adventure. Some of the older parks like Disneyland and Six Flags Over Texas (and even Astroworld) were originally in the boonies and the city encroached, boxing those properties in. I dont see anyone building along I45N in the Woodlands area and am skeptical about Katy.

Further, very few companies are building parks these days. Cedar Fair doesn't build parks. Six Flags doesn't build parks. Paramount and Busch stopped building parks long ago as well. Disney and Universal feel they have North America pretty well covered right now and are more concerned with Asia expansion. I wouldn't count on any of the large amusement park chains to move into Houston if Astroworld's land is sold out from beneath it.