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Variety in the Heartland |
Fair Board Approves Six Flags
07/25/10 MRC/CJ
Six Flags and the Kentucky State Fair Board have reached a multi-million-dollar agreement that will turn over the amusement park company’s stake in Kentucky Kingdom to the fair board.
The fair board voted Thursday to approve the agreement with Six Flags, which notified the fair board in February that it was abandoning the park at the Kentucky Exposition Center after operating it for a dozen years.
The Six Flags parent company, now in bankruptcy proceedings in Delaware, had a lease with the state for the fairgrounds land that was to run through 2019.
Harold Workman, president of the fair board, said the deal between the board and Six Flags is subject to approval, probably by late August, of the bankruptcy court.
Workman said Six Flags officials have expressed a strong desire to relinquish their holdings in Kentucky.
The revelation of the deal comes as Ed Hart, the local developer in line to operate the amusement park once it reopens, is preparing to present a financing plan for Kentucky Kingdom.
Hart said in an interview Friday that he expects it to take an investment of more than $20 million, a combination of his money and possibly government bonds, to upgrade the park to the point it can draw visitors from outside the Louisville area.
The fair board will reclaim about 10 acres inside the circle that Six Flags has been leasing. That land includes the two-story Kentucky Kingdom office building that Workman said the fair board is already using; several small buildings and a park amphitheater probably will be cleared, with several rides outside the circle to be offered to Hart.
Kentucky Kingdom for years has been an extension of the midway during the Kentucky State Fair, but it will remain closed for the fair in August.
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