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.
That was 35 years ago.
Time and things have changed.
I heard that very same rumor!
I loved the mini-bread! It was up to fifty cents by the time I started frequenting the park, but that was good bread!
A better question would be, how credible is the real estate broker trying to sell the land?
I checked the map and it's between Fannin and Kirby. Some of the Astroworld addresses are on Kirby.
They sell the basketball as Astroworld...complete with college or pro logos....kids seem to love them and do bounce them all over the park....
Sorry to hear about the closure, but I recognize that times change. I remember that there was some sort of commuter bus that went from La Porte (relatively close to where we lived, certainly much closer than the park itself was) to the Dome parking lot. One of the first occasions on which my parents essentially let me be on my own was during my junior-high years, when they let me (accompanied by friends) take it alone. We used to go 2-3x a summer, and the Apline Sleigh Ride, the Cyclone and the Black Dragon were always our favorites.
These were not new basketballs.
They brought them into the park.
They had no intention of riding the rides or buying anything. I was informed by a Cop buddy that many came in through holes in the fence.
They were just there to hang out as I guess they all graduated from highschool at 12 or 14 years old. I was suprised as none of them seemed too smart and really didn't speak English very well. Lots of cursing and slang too.
Did I mention that school was in session?
Exactly. The AstroWorld that I remember is a warm, fuzzy place from my childhood, and apparently the current reality bears no resemblance. It seems to be hitting a soft spot somewhere inside of me to hear of the closure, because so many things about life have changed, and there's "No Return" to the way things were.
Houston in general has that sort of feel to me -- though I still have affection for the place, and still have many connections to the area. Change is a way of life there.
Sharpstown, my hometown during elementary school and junior high, was considered "the suburbs" when we moved there in 1972. When Sharpstown was swallowed up by the city and began to show signs of decay in the late 70s, we moved to Katy. Now I go back to visit Katy (the Mason Rd area, not Katy proper) and it looks like it's being swallowed up by the city too. My wife gets annoyed when we drive around there, because everything we see causes me to say "Wow, look at that! I remember when that was nothing but a big, empty field...".
I'm flying to Houston this weekend with my daughter (who was born in Jefferson Davis Hospital in 1984, when I was just 19) to throw a surprise 45th Anniversary party for my parents. I think I'll have to load them all up in the car and take a drive along 610 to see AstroWorld one last time before it fades into the dustbin of (rapidly changing) history...
Probably had been up since midnight.
Maybe some of the basketballs aren't empty.
Got stuck in a gondola there in 1975. Only thing I remember about the place.
Too crowded and highly overrated.
2 good friends of mine went to Sharpstown High.
Too bad, eh? I have pretty good memories but it was starting to go downhill even when I was there the last time in the 80s. I think the last time I went, I saw Billy Idol perform! LOL!
Email me, Bucko...I can't find your email address. A certain card I sent recently was returned and I need to verify the address again! It looks right to me, but it said "Return to Sender".
?
;)
Man, oh man I'm getting by butt kicked at work today.
I remember you from the rally!
Please add me to the An enemy of islam -- ping list.
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