SANDUSKY - Cedar Fair, L.P., parent company of Cedar Point and five other amusement parks, said yesterday it agreed to buy Michigan's Adventure, a 200-acre family-owned amusement park near Muskegon, Mich.
Cedar Fair intends to buy the western Michigan park by providing its owners, the Roger Jourden family, with shares of Cedar Fair stock (which the company calls partnership units).
The deal, which has been under negotiations for nearly six months, is subject to a number of conditions but could be completed by June 1, said Brian Witherow, head of Cedar Fair investors relations.
"It's a park that's currently profitable and we would expect it to be profitable for us in it's first year of operation," Mr. Witherow said. A purchase price was not disclosed.
Separately yesterday, Cedar Fair said its first-quarter profit and revenues were down from a year ago.
It lost $30.5 million, or 60 cents a limited partner unit, on revenues of $20 million for the quarter ending March 25, compared with a loss of $26.6 million, or 51 cents a unit, on revenues of $20.5 million for the same period last year. The company typically loses money in the quarter because most of its amusement parks are not open.
Michigan's Adventure, which has 25 rides and a world-class wooden roller coaster, the Shivering Timbers, is a traditional, family-oriented park that annually draws about 400,000 customers. It also has a water park area, called Wild Water Adventure.
The park, which Mr. Witherow said has room to expand, draws primarily from central and western Michigan, northern Indiana, and eastern Illinois.
According to news reports in Muskegon, Michigan's Adventure's land and equipment were valued at more than $14 million for taxing purposes in 2001 by county tax assessors.
Peter Swan, an analyst with Pacific Growth Equities, Inc., in San Francisco, said that although the park is small, Cedar Fair can walk right in and start making a profit.
"It's an opportunity to have an expanded presence in Michigan. It's a nice fit," he said, adding that the park could add $12 million annually to Cedar Fair's revenues. The Sandusky company's latest annual revenue was $473 million.
The new park would be the smallest in attendance of Cedar Fair's holdings, considerably below the 1 million it draws each year at Valleyfair near Minneapolis, currently the group's smallest in attendance. Cedar Point draws about 3.5 million customers annually.
Still, Tim O'Brien, southeast editor at Amusement Business magazine, called the purchase a good move for Cedar Fair, which should have a strong hold on the Michigan market with its Muskegon and Sandusky parks. It also keeps Six Flags, Inc., which has been buying up smaller parks, from getting a hold in Cedar Fair's home turf, he added.
First Published May 8, 2001, 12:35 p.m.