> 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.<p>> Cedar Fair bought the land beneath Great America from the city of Santa Clara in 2019 for $150 million<p>The quote about the Cedar Fair purchase links to a Mercury News article about the sale:<p>> 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.<p>> 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.<p>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.<p>The previous lease didn’t expire until 2074, and presumably was tied to the use as a theme park.<p>Personally this seems like a big failure to hand a corporation a $150m windfall.
This park was originally the sister park of Great America in Gurnee, Illinois (now owned by Six Flags), both originally built in the 1970s by Marriott (the hotel company). Up until the mid 1980s when the parks were sold, they were almost clones of each other (the way Orlando's Magic Kingdom is of Calfornia's Disneyland). You can still see some common features of the parks but they've been diverging for the past 30+ years.
> It was not announced what Prologis, the new owner, plans to do with the property after the rides have shuttered.<p>It's Prologis. That land will be warehouses at the earliest opportunity.