NEWS: Palace Entertainment considers buying Miami Seaquarium

[jedimaster1227]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/04/3797426/amusement-parks-giant-in-talks.html

 

The owner of South Florida’s iconic tourist attraction, the Miami Seaquarium, has had “discussions” about selling to a California-based subsidiary of a Spanish parks operator but said no deal has been struck.

 

Arthur Hertz, chief executive of Wometco Enterprises, which owns the 58-year-old attraction, confirmed the talks were with Palace Entertainment, which owns a string of amusement parks and facilities, including Boomers in Dania Beach and Boca Raton.

 

“We have had discussions,” said Hertz, 80, noting that Wometco is in no rush to sell. “We’ve had many discussions over the years” with different companies.

 

A source who wished to remain anonymous told BrowardBulldog.org Editor Dan Christensen last week that Hertz had negotiated a deal to sell the Seaquarium to Palace for about $30 million. The source said a nondisclosure agreement was signed while due-diligence steps by the purchaser were being completed. Christensen characterized the source as “knowledgeable.”

 

The deal reportedly includes a provision that would allow Hertz’s son, Andrew, to remain on to manage the Seaquarium.

 

Arthur Hertz refused to comment about details of the discussions.

 

A Palace spokeswoman in Newport Beach, Calif., did not respond to two requests for a comment. Palace Entertainment is a subsidiary of Madrid-based park operator Parques Reunidos.

 

For decades, the Seaquarium has been a venerable mainstay of the South Florida tourism industry. Its greatest fame came in the mid-1960s, when the attraction was used to make 88 television episodes and two movies of the dolphin Flipper. Starting in 1971, when Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, attendance fell for many years.

 

Still, the Seaquarium remains a major tenant of Miami-Dade County, which leases 33 waterfront acres to the attraction on the Rickenbacker Causeway. The facility, which has a lease running to 2031, pays the county $2.7 million a year, according to a county spokeswoman. Payments are based on a percentage of revenue, indicating that the Seaquarium has gross receipts of about $25 million a year.

 

Wometco was founded in 1925 by two brothers-in-law, Mitchell Wolfson and Sidney Meyer. Wolfson — often known as “the colonel” in Miami — became chief executive. For the first two decades, Wometco was a movie-theater chain. In 1955, the company opened the Seaquarium and kept expanding until it owned six television stations, 100 movie theaters, cable-television systems, and bottling plants.

 

In 1983, after Wolfson’s death, Wometco was sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a New York investment firm, for slightly more than $1 billion. In 1985, two longtime Wometco employees, Hertz and Michael Brown, bought back part of the business — including the Seaquarium, movie theaters, and food services.

 

Hertz, who had started with Wometco as an accountant in 1956 and had risen to chief operating officer, became chief executive of the new Wometco. The company eventually sold off the movie theaters. Its operations today are the Seaquarium and 50 Baskin-Robbins ice-cream shops in the Caribbean.

 

In the 1990s, the Seaquarium pushed hard to get zoning approval for a $70 million expansion to create a full-fledged water park with slides and pools and other attractions on the Rickenbacker site. Miami Herald stories talked then about how attendance had hit a high of 1.1 million in 1971 — the year Walt Disney World opened, and collapsed to less than half that by 1985, before starting to slowly rise again.

 

“Seaquarium is tired,” Hertz told the Herald in 1991. “It’s an old facility with no modernization for the last 20 years. If we’re going to retain it, we’ve got to rebuild.”

 

The village of Key Biscayne battled the expansion plans for years, and the war carried over to the courts. “We’d win in the lower courts, but lose in the higher courts,” Hertz said. Finally, he gave up the fight.

 

In recent years, animal-rights activists have objected to the Seaquarium keeping dolphins and killer whales in captivity, even filing a federal lawsuit in 2012 objecting to the living conditions of Lolita, the killer whale. A judge dismissed the lawsuit.

 

Last April, the Herald reported, the federal government agreed to consider whether Lolita should be declared part of an endangered species.

 

“Lolita has been part of the Miami Seaquarium family for more than 42 years, and is as active and healthy as ever,” Andrew Hertz told the Herald in 2012. “Lolita will continue to be an ambassador for her species from her home at Miami Seaquarium.”

 

Andrew Hertz did not respond to phone call seeking a comment.

 

Arthur Hertz said Tuesday the activists’ objections “are still going on,” but their demands that visitors boycott the Seaquarium had no effect. “The public doesn’t care.”

 

Revenue in recent years has been on a steadily upward trend, as measured by lease payments to the county that rose from $1.4 million in fiscal 2001 to $2.7 million in 2013. The exception was 2005, when Hurricane Wilma and other storms damaged the facility.

 

Palace Entertainment’s website boasts that it is “one of the leading leisure park operators in the United States,” with parks located in 11 states, hosting 13 million visitors a year.

 

Palace has recently been in an expansive mode. Last year, it purchased Noah’s Ark, a 70-acre water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., that the company described as “America’s largest water park.” Terms of that deal were not disclosed.

 

Hertz family members have long been civic leaders in South Florida. Arthur has been chair of the Orange Bowl Committee, a senior trustee at the University of Miami, a longtime leader of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, and a onetime board member of the Jackson Health System.

 

His son, Andrew, whose title is president and general manager of the Seaquarium, has been following in his father’s footsteps and is the current chair of the Orange Bowl Committee.

 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/04/v-fullstory/3797426/amusement-parks-giant-in-talks.html#storylink=cpy

Edited April 4, 2014 by jedimaster1227

[larrygator]

I did not know that Wometco still existed. I remember when they became the launched a pay subscription TV channel in the 70s before we had cable TV.

[robbalvey]

Ahh, yes. Home to one of the best trip reports from Erik & Smisty:

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=989927#p989927

 

Especially this caption:

What I do know is that I've never seen so much bestiality in my entire life, and I have the internet.

[Jew]

^That caption is brilliant!

 

Also crazy how many little places Palace owns around the country!

[Rollercoaster Rider]

Surprised Merlin hasn't looked at it.

[robbalvey]

Surprised Merlin hasn't looked at it.

Does Merlin own a single other property like this??? Why would they be interested? SeaLife & the Sanctuaries are a very, VERY VERY different than a full-on marine life park. Not sure this would really fit their portfolio.

[Hercules]

Yeah Merlin wouldn't get in to something like this.

 

I can see Palace taking all of the life out of this place to be honest, at least what it has left. Let's throw the ball to Herschend and see if they will give a crack at it.

[GwaziBSRider1]

If Palace was smart, they'd put their money into the parks they currently own instead of letting them go down the tube to buy more.

[jedimaster1227]

I think the park would require far too much investment to bring it up to standard for Merlin to want to buy in. Plus their investments in Central Florida seem to be doing just fine for them... I doubt they'd want to split their interests in Florida so soon.

[Hercules]

If Palace was smart, they'd put their money into the parks they currently own instead of letting them go down the tube to buy more.

 

Quoted for truth.

[DenDen]

Original article from NBC6 Miami

The Miami Seaquarium is being sold to a California-based company that is a subsidiary of Spanish theme park operator Parques Reunidos.

 

The Miami Herald reported Friday that the company signed an agreement in the past month to buy the 38-acre park on Virginia Key.

 

The Herald reports owner Wometco Enterprises will close the deal after the Miami-Dade County Commission votes on a resolution approving the purchase in the next few months. The Seaquarium leases the land from the county and pays on a fluctuating scale based partly on revenues.

 

President and general manager Andrew Hertz told The Herald that talks had been underway for more than two years. He did not disclose terms of the deal but said Palace Entertainment initiated the sale.

 

The park opened in 1955.

[Jew]

I wonder if CNN will do a "documentary" on this place? Don't they have Orca's too?

[MFJorts]

Possible site of the polar coaster?

[jedimaster1227]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/28/4023351/california-theme-park-company.html

 

The Miami Seaquarium, the Virginia Key tourist attraction that has drawn millions of visitors to see the famous Flipper lagoon and get splashed by Lolita the killer whale, is being sold.

 

California-based Palace Entertainment, a subsidiary of Spanish theme park operator Parques Reunidos, signed an agreement in the past month to purchase the 38-acre park on the Rickenbacker Causeway.

 

What that will mean for the iconic attraction, host of generations of field trips and the Flipper TV show in the 1960s, is unknown. Representatives of Palace Entertainment were not available for interviews Thursday, and an announcement slated for wide release Friday did not mention future plans.

 

Owner Wometco Enterprises will close the deal and hand over the park after the Miami-Dade County Commission votes on a resolution approving the purchase, which is expected within a couple of months. The Seaquarium leases the land from the county, paying on a fluctuating scale based partly on revenues. In fiscal year 2012-13, the company paid $2.1 million. The lease runs through 2031.

 

The Seaquarium’s president and general manager, Andrew Hertz, told the Miami Herald on Thursday that talks with the buyer had been underway for more than two years.

 

“We have never offered Miami Seaquarium for sale, period,” said Hertz, whose family owns the park. “In my 18 years here, at least two, three inquiries a year have come in.”

 

Hertz said Palace Entertainment “came to us and made an offer” that Wometco was willing to consider. He would not disclose terms of the deal.

 

In December, the nonprofit online news publication Broward Bulldog reported that the deal was in the works and put the sale price at $30 million, citing an anonymous source. Hertz said that number was not correct, but would not give any more information.

 

The current management team, including Hertz, will remain in place, he said. He expects the new owner to undertake a study of current operations and come up with a plan about what kind of investment needs to be made in the facility.

 

“From the outside looking in, you’re probably not going to see a whole lot of changes at first,” he said. “After six months or a year, we’ll have a collective vision going forward of what we want the park to look like.”

 

Palace Entertainment owns seven theme parks, 10 water parks and 20 family entertainment centers in the United States, including Boomers in Boca Raton and Dania Beach. Madrid-based Parques Reunidos operates 72 parks or centers around the world, mostly in Europe and the United States.

 

In a statement, Palace Entertainment president and CEO Fernando Eiroa said the company was “excited to be adding such a premier entertainment and educational destination to our collection of family parks.”

 

“We understand the commitment that Miami Seaquarium has to wildlife conservation, community involvement and their dedication to both educate and entertain guests,” he said.

 

The Seaquarium does not release its attendance figures, but the statement said it draws more than 500,000 visitors a year and offers eight different marine animal shows and presentations a day.

 

Opened in 1955, the park was once home to the beloved albino porpoise, Carolina Snowball, and served as the location for the Flipper television show and films, as well as movies featuring Salty the Sea Lion.

 

Over the past several years, the Seaquarium has expanded from merely showing off its sea creatures to selling more hands-on experiences. Now, visitors can pay to swim with dolphins and seals or wander through a reef while wearing a dive helmet.

 

The park’s star, Lolita the killer whale, has long been the subject of impassioned protests and petitions from critics who say her tank is too small and her living conditions are poor. Her situation has been the subject of lawsuits, one of which was dismissed earlier this week.

 

In another case, the National Marine Fisheries Service was accepting comments until Friday on a proposal to include Lolita on the endangered species list of the southern resident killer whale population. The submission of comments is part of a 12-month process that will stretch through next January.

 

Hertz said he is confident that Lolita will remain at the Seaquarium, and said there are no plans in the near future for any changes that would affect her.

 

“Obviously, Lolita is a proud ambassador for her species here at the park,” he said. “Nothing is going to change with her in the short run as far as her status here at the park or her stadium.”

 

The planned sale brings to an end the once-massive presence of Wometco in South Florida.

 

The Wolfson-Meyer Theater Co., later shortened to Wometco, was founded in 1925 by brothers-in-law Mitchell Wolfson — father of Wolfsonian Museum founder Micky Wolfson — and Sidney Meyer. With Wolfson as chief executive, Wometco operated for its first two decades as a movie theater chain, opening the Capitol Theater in downtown Miami in 1926.

 

The company acquired the Seaquarium, then 5 years old, in 1960 and continued to grow its media empire into a half-dozen television stations — including Miami’s WTVJ – and more than 100 movie theaters. New York investment firm Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. paid slightly more than $1 billion for Wometco in 1983, after Wolfson’s death.

 

Two years later, longtime Wometco employees Arthur Hertz, now 80, and Michael Brown bought back part of the business, including the Seaquarium and movie theaters. Hertz, who started as an accountant at the company in 1956, became CEO of the new Wometco, which eventually sold off its movie theaters but continued to operate the Seaquarium and about 50 Baskin-Robbins ice cream shops in the Caribbean.

 

Andrew Hertz said “family matters” came into play in the decision to sell the park, but stressed that the final call came down to having the right buyer, regardless of price.

 

“Certainly the age of the principals at our home office might have factored into it somewhat,” he said. “There’s timing and then there’s appropriateness. Appropriateness of the parties involved trumps everything.”

 

William Talbert III, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, said Thursday that the global nature of the company behind the buyer was a promising sign.

 

“To have an industry leader based in Europe purchasing a great, great attraction in our community is a great thing,” he said. “We’ve spoken to the Seaquarium folks, and we’re very bullish in the future to meet with the new owners and talk about how we can more aggressively promote their facility and also have an understanding of their vision, long-term, for the attraction.”

 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/28/4023351/california-theme-park-company.html#storylink=cpy