Gardens to Be Sold

Posted by Bob Gernert on September 6, 2007 at 1:17 pm

On Sept. 25, Cypress Gardens and Wild Adventures theme parks will be sold to satisfy requirements under the 2006 Chapter 11 filing by Adventures Parks Group, LLC.

The Chamber has been in direct communication with park owners for several months. In a conversation today, Kent Buescher, CEO of Adventure Parks Group stated there is no chance either park will close. He added there would be no changes in employees and new events and programming would be forthcoming.

He emphasized that annual passes will be honored until their natural expiration at year’s end and new passes will go on sale as usual in November.

It will be business as usual both before and after the sale. Based on our information, there are well-qualified, interested buyers in line for both of parks.

As more information is available, we will update you here.

Update: 3:45 p.m. 09/06/07 The United States District Court, Middle Court of Georgia, Valdosta Division will conduct the sale on September 25. There could be more than one bidder for a particular park. In light of that fact it is our understanding that no one will know the actual buyers until that date.

4:45 p.m. 09/06/07 In an interview with the News Chief, Sara Sumner with Adventure Parks Group said, “any potential buyers for one or both of the parks will have to go through a pre-qualifying process to enter the bidding process.

The opening bid for a package purchase of Wild Adventures and Cypress Gardens is set at a minimum $53.25 million, Sumner said. An opening minimum bid for Cypress Gardens alone is $17.4 million and the opening minimum bid for Wild Adventures alone is $38.85 million.

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REMARKS   19 Total remarks on this post. Add your own remarks below

  • September 6th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
    Josh Hallett

    There’s a scoop.

  • September 6th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
    Debbie Harsh

    I am very sorry to hear this. Kent Buescher has truely been a friend to Winter Haven, Polk County and the State of Florida

  • September 6th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
    Frances Asheim

    Kent has done one terrific job, especially since Mother Nature tried to close him up with many storms! It is my feeling that Dick and Julie Pope would have approved of his remodeling. It is beautiful. And the shows have been lots of fun.

  • September 6th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
    Jeff Stevens

    I wish the new owners the best of luck and great success. It’s beautiful park. I also thank the past owners for taking on such a great task to reopen and keep the park alive. With the Indians leaving it will be a huge undertaking to keep it going.
    It was the Indians that brought our family here and since then invest in several properties. It was the city itself that kept us here. Winter Haven is really a great little town. I just don’t know what will bring new blood to town next year and the years after. I hope that the city leaders will use good judgement in the use of the stadium land. Another major league team should be pursued aggressively. We already have enough condos and offices.
    But again, new owners, Welcome!!!

  • September 6th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
    SAM

    Kent should be very proud of his work to save the Gardens. I know folks of Florida are.

  • September 6th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
    Dee Dee

    I hope the new owners keep it much like it is now. It’s been a real positive for the community. It kept some of the old charm and added great new things.

  • September 6th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
    Sheri

    Let’s keep our heads up…Great things are coming our way! Kent…You have done a great job keeping our park beautiful and keeping it’s legacy alive! All of your hard work has been greatly appreciated.

  • September 6th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
    Dave

    I’m very sad to hear this news. Winter Haven has no greater friend than Kent Buescher. I pray that everything will work out for him and his family.

    Let’s hope the new owners keep the vision of Dick Pope and Kent alive and well.

  • September 6th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
    Jon

    As others have said Mr. Buescher and his team have done an excellent job of bringing the park back to life. I would definitely like to thank them!

  • September 7th, 2007 at 5:36 am
    Bill Johnson

    There are some dis-hearted employees at Cypress Gardens because the owners do not keep them informed of news like this. One in particular is my wife one of the hardest working employees they have. I hope the new owners keep their employees informed more than they are now. To read this in the paper and Bob Gernert making the comments he did about knowing what is going on tells me the present owners could care less about their employees. Mr. Gernert is your daughter not a former employee of the Gardens.

  • September 7th, 2007 at 6:48 am
    Jim

    I hate to hear this again. Let’s hope the new buyers are screened & make known their intentions. Please don’t sell to Busch again.

  • September 7th, 2007 at 6:51 am
    Bob Gernert

    Mr. Johnson,

    I apologize that the employees of the Gardens learned of the sale of the park in this manner. I assure you that my plan for yesterday did not include communicating such information. Court papers regarding the sale were obtained by the Valdosta newspaper which published brief information on their website in mid-afternoon. I immediately spoke with Kent Buescher who had not expected the information to become public as yet.

    I know Kent Buescher well and in every case where there has been a negative potential including the filing for reorganization, he talked with Gardens employees before the news became public.

    I know he has worked diligently to ensure a positive outcome for the park and its employees and I’m certain he will express his apologies to employees when he meets with them today.

    The news was going to come out yesterday. Our goal was that it be accurate.

  • September 7th, 2007 at 9:24 am
    GF

    Who are the new owners?

  • September 7th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
    GF

    The newspaper reported today that the parks will be sold via private auction on 9/25.

  • September 9th, 2007 at 9:55 am
    Geno

    My wife is one of the water skiers in the ski show. She fought to get the park back open for over a year, along side of Burma. I am sure the park will stay open in some way, shape, or form, but to what extent, we won’t know until the next wave of ownership. Whatever the outcome, we hope that the ski show is considered a necessity, as it is as much a part of the park history as all of the beautiful botanical gardens. Keep our ski show rolling!

  • September 9th, 2007 at 10:46 am
    Bob Gernert

    The historic context of the Gardens is important to all those who love the park. We believe that Kent Buescher is working to ensure that those pursuing the park understand the importance of the ski show in not only the Gardens history but that of Florida.

  • September 13th, 2007 at 2:58 am
    Summer

    I think that the current owners did a great job with the Gardens. My parents always talk about the Gardens and how the used to work there when they were in high school and i am glad that it is still around today for me to enjoy, although i believe it is better now because i love the rides and the water park was a huge hit for me and my family! I do hope that whoever buys it continues to add on great things and make our Beautiful Gardens even better!

  • September 21st, 2007 at 11:14 pm
    Peggy

    We love going to the gardens and walking. We have had passes every since we moved here to Winter Haven 10 years ago, hope we can enjoy this for years to come. The additions to the park are just what it needed, looking forward to the Holidays there! So sorry Mr. Buescher is giving up Cypress Gardens along with Wild Adventures-he tried to do a good deed and we thank him and his family for it.

  • September 25th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
    Neil Rangen

    My wife and I are now retired and live in Florida. We love Cypress Gardens, partiularly the many wonderful oldies concerts during the winter season. I hope the new owner continues with the concerts as that brought a lot of us oldsters into the park. I noticed the Cypress Gardens website is no longer working, hopefully the new owners will bring the website back up and use it as a means of communicating to all of us who love and use Cypress Gardens.

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