Posted on 09/13/2005 4:52:01 PM PDT by Michael Goldsberry
It's the place where Houston children got their summer thrills, teenagers got their first jobs and college students saw their favorite bands.
Now after 37 years, the landmark Six Flags AstroWorld theme park will close at the end of this season, the victim of rising land values that overshadow its worth as an entertainment venue.
"While attendance has gone down, the value of the land has gone up substantially," said Jim Dannhauser, chief financial officer of Oklahoma City-based Six Flags.
Owner of 30 amusement parks, Six Flags has more than $2 billion in debt.
Former Houston Mayor Roy Hofheinz opened AstroWorld in 1968 and since then the park has hosted company picnics, concerts and family reunions, and children have stood on their tiptoes to meet the height requirements for roller coasters.
Rides like Greezed Lightnin' and Ultra Twister that sped thrill seekers upside down through loops were popular.
But it's the 29-year-old Texas Cyclone that many Houstonians identify with AstroWorld. Patterned after the 1927 Coney Island Cyclone, the red, white and blue wooden structure can be seen from the 610 Loop.
Jeff Peden, a director at Cushman and Wakefield, the real estate company that will market the land, said there is no asking price for the 109-acre site, but he estimated that it will sell for $95 million to $145 million.
"We've seen properties close to here go for $25 to $35 per square foot," said Peden.
"Kirby and 610, that's a great address in Houston," said Todd Edmonds, senior vice president of the real estate company Colliers International.
Housing or office site?
Something of that size will probably become a mixed-use development, including multifamily housing, retail and office, said Edmonds, who described the property as one of the largest contiguous pieces of land near the Medical Center.
Harris County officials said they did not know that Six Flags would be putting AstroWorld on the market, but they were not completely surprised.
"The park seems to underperform in comparison to some of their other parks," said County Judge Robert Eckels.
Mike Surface, chairman of the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp., which oversees Reliant Park, said: "There have been discussions for years about the viability of that location. You have a park that was obviously an aged park and limited in space needed for expansion."
Surface estimated that the land along the Loop, Kirby and Fannin could be worth $1 million an acre and that non-frontage property might go for $600,000 an acre.
After AstroWorld closes, an investor will likely build an amusement park in the Houston-area suburbs, some said.
"There is strong market in Houston for this type of facility," Eckels said.
Six Flags will continue to have a presence in the Houston area with Six Flags SplashTown water park.
Six Flags recently sued the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp., alleging that it had failed to honor a contractual provision that allowed the amusement park to extend an option on guaranteed parking at Reliant Park.
Six Flags' decades-long contract that provided it with parking in the southwest corner of Reliant Park expired in August.
The amusement park took the position that it had an option allowing it to extend the deal 30 years, Surface said.
The Sports & Convention Corp. said no such option existed.
The Sports & Convention Corp. would have continued to lease parking space to AstroWorld, Surface said. But it wanted to move AstroWorld's parking from the southwest corner of Reliant Park to the southeast corner for Texans' games and perhaps some Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo events, Surface and other county officials said.
Attempts to mediate the dispute failed Sept. 6.
Uncertainty over parking issues was not a major factor in the decision to sell, but was "a contributing factor," Dannhauser said.
"It caused us to invest less in the park than we might have done," he said, and gave the company an opportunity to stand back and assess the situation.
About 120 permanent jobs will be lost after the closure. The park employs about 1,500 seasonal workers.
Oct. 30 is final day
This month, AstroWorld is open Saturday and Sunday. From Oct. 7 -30, it will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The final day of operation is Oct. 30, the last day of Fright Fest.
Attendance has suffered at parks nationally as these amusement centers compete with other forms of entertainment, such as television and the Internet, said James Zoltak, editor of Amusement Business.
Shutting down the park will not hurt the city's economy much because many of the seasonal jobs paid little more than minimum wage, he said.
The bigger loss, he said, is that theme parks offer people a sense of nostalgia, with grandparents taking their grandchildren to their favorite rides.
"You lose something that has been part of the city's culture and psyche for a number of years," Zoltak said.
We sat on the very last car because it seemed to lift off the tracks at times. The rain felt like rocks hitting my face.
Ah, youth.
Went on a trip there in the late 80's with the man who is now my husband. He rode the Texas Cyclone, but I did not.
Information from a friend in Houston.
AstroWorld received quite a few visitors this weekend. Some of those at the Astrodome used their $2000 debit cards last week spent them at AstroWorld.
Yeah, I remember one of my favorite rides was the "River of No Return"...
One of my friends operated that ride, and one night, close to closing, it was him, my (soon to be) girlfriend and me hanging around the warf area of the ride...
He basically said keep it on this speed, and she and I hopped in for a unique ride "by ourselves"...hehehe
Teenagers...Geesh...
Good thing those boats ran themselves...She had other ideas...Honest, it wasn't me!!!
Well, at least Texas still has the Schitterbahn.
I'm not suprised. The Astrodome complex is right across the street from Astroworld.
Many years ago my wife and I went to Astroworld.
We picked a weekday in a non-standard time frame for vacations, a Tuesday I think; when all schools were open for business. No holiday, no reason for anyone but us and tourists to be there.
The place was full of punk-ass bangers bouncing basketballs. One could not escape the infernal bouncing of basketballs. They didn't ride the rides and obviously didn't go to school.
They did bounce basketballs.
Basketballs everywhere. I still twitch when I hear a basketball bounced, not dribbled. None of these bangers had any talent.
The place was filthy even then.
Good riddance.
Let the garbage hang out somewhere else. Or maybe arrest their parents for not making them go to school. Maybe that would help.
Which has nothing to do with Astroworld closing.
You are correct.
Post# 7 is why it is being closed.
Punk-ass bangers and trash.
Nobody from my neighborhood would drop their kid off there and then pick them up later.
I was there last summer, and felt relatively safe -- UNTIL DARK.
After dark, there were areas where do one dared enter. Gangs of rough lookin' kids gathering and scuffling.
I thought then, this place will close soon. They can't risk the liability.
I have great memories of going to see the Astros play, and then walking across the bridge to Astroworld. Good times!
Man,Astroworld was the first really super amusement park I ever went to.
In May,1970,I stopped there on a cross country trip and loved the rides,crowds and humid night air.
Sorry to hear of its demise.
It's time to close Astroworld. I understand there's lots of crime taking place there. It's gotten very dangerous to take older kids there and leave them.
Also,contrary to some of the other posts,I didn't notice any gangsta activity.
"Kirby and 610, that's a great address in Houston," said Todd Edmonds, senior vice president of the real estate company Colliers International.
Don't know how credible this article is: AstroWorld occupies the corner of Fannin and 610 (not Kirby).
Should you outlive me, I anticipate your comments on my FR memorial thread will center around the stupid things I've done along the way rather than the good times I've had with my friends here.
When I got home-leave I would go to AstroWorld.
I'd chuck pennies at people while riding the sky-car things.
Never took a date there.
Some folks even did drugs there I'm told.
I met my future wife in Lima, Peru. We was from Holland and I was living in Ft. Lauderdale, but we arranged to meet in Houston in 1979. We spent day at Astroworld and we rode the Cyclone together. I think we still have the picture around the house somewhere that we had taken of us together in a fake Cyclone car as a souvenir.
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