Cedar Fair sells Calif. park

SANDUSKY — Cedar Fair announced Monday that it sold land at its California Great America amusement park with plans to eventually shut down the park. Cedar Fair sold the land to Prologis, Inc., for an amount close to $310 million, according to a release from Cedar Fair. Great America will continue operations for up to 11 years, under a lease agreement negotiated with Prologis, and will then close the park at the end of the lease. "For our investors, the sale and lease agreements allow us to monetize a high-value asset in the heart of Silicon Valley at a very attractive multiple," Cedar Fair president and CEO Richard Zimmerman said. "The transaction also provides us with a substantial sum of incremental capital which we intend to use to further advance our strategic priorities and generate enhanced returns for our unitholders." Here is more information on the sale provided by Cedar Fair: "The land sale, which was marketed by CBRE, was the outcome of a strategic review initiated by Cedar Fair in 2021 to explore potential avenues to maximize the value of the Company's extensive asset portfolio. Cedar Fair purchased the land at California's Great America in 2019 from the City of Santa Clara after the State of California dissolved redevelopment agencies, requiring the city to cede its ownership of the property to pay off existing debt. Prior to that transaction, the Company leased the land from the City for more than 40 years. Cedar Fair intends to use proceeds from the land sale transaction to accelerate progress on its strategic priorities of reducing debt to achieve its $2 billion target, investing in high-return projects within its portfolio such as upgrading resort properties, and reinstating a sustainable unitholder distribution. Based on the strength and pace of the recovery since reopening its parks in 2021, and due to the additional capital raised through the Great America transaction, Cedar Fair expects to reinstate quarterly unitholder distributions by the third quarter of 2022, subject to review and approval by the Cedar Fair Board of Directors."