Offer to redevelop Six Flags Amusement Park in New Orleans is still pending
Although a video making the rounds on the Internet says that the theme park is scheduled for demolition next year, city officials say there are no plans to demolish the Six Flags Amusement Park and an offer to redevelop the site is still pending.
The six and a half-minute video shot by photographer Teddy Smith, set only to somber music, provides a haunting illustration of the park's unkempt state. Shattered glass from blown out windows and doors still covers the ground. Vandals have covered some walls with graffiti. The park rides, left abandoned since the park shut down, are predictably weathered. At the end of the video, a word blurb says that the park rides are scheduled to be dismantled and the park demolished in January.
But city spokesman Ryan Berni said that "there is no plan" to demolish the site or to dismantle the equipment. Such an action would require approval from the City Council, said Eric Granderson, chief of staff for council chairman Arnie Fielkow. The council is not entertaining any such proposals, Granderson said. "We had heard that rumor," Granderson said. "But it isn't true."
The city also disputes another claim in the video: that it was shot with the city's permission. Berni said Smith was part of a film crew shooting the movie "The Courier" at the site over four days in October. While the film crew had permission to shoot for the movie, Berni said Smith, who lists telephone numbers in Baton Rouge and Los Angeles on his Web site, did not have the city's permission to shoot his own video. Smith did not return a request for comment.
Aside from the recent movie filming and Smith's video, there has been little action at the park, which never reopened after Hurricane Katrina. Private security had been used to guard the site for several years after it closed, but the City Council budget for 2011 does not include it.
The city has ownership of the property after Six Flags terminated its lease with New Orleans in December while undergoing bankruptcy reorganization. The termination agreement called for Six Flags to make a $3 million cash payment to the city. The company also was ordered to give New Orleans 25 percent of its net Katrina-related insurance proceeds for the site on a settlement amount more than $65 million.
Last year, there were competing proposals for the site's development. A start up called Southern Star Amusement that for a short time had an alliance with Nickelodeon wanted to refurbish the park's rides and reopen it as a Nickelodeon branded theme park. Meanwhile, Big League Dreams hoped to build a sports complex. Neither project has moved forward.
The most recent offer to redevelop the park came from Minnesota developer 3 Wise Men Entertainment Inc. In its application to the Industrial Development Board in April, the company said that it would restore "infrastructure, sewer, water, other utilities, building structures and existing park rides," among other things on the 150-acre site. The company's proposal also called for the development of a "resort with a water park and additional theme rides." According to the application, the total projected budget for the project was $202 million.
But just days after its application went public, the company withdrew its request to appear before the Industrial Development Board to request preliminary approval of $200 million in bonds to support the project. The board, which acts as the city's real estate arm, must give initial approval for bonds before a request is made to the Louisiana State Bond Commission.
The application is still pending, IDB Administrator Sharon Martin said. But a date for it to go before the board had not been set as of Wednesday afternoon.
Source:
Nola.com
------------------------
Phew... Apparently it's not going to be demolished yet. The coasters are saved for now.