Good-bye, Gilroy Gardens?
Maybe not yet, but a sub-committee of the city council will soon
meet with representatives from a Florida amusement park company
that could add a water park for children to west Gilroy’s
struggling horticultural dream.
Good-bye, Gilroy Gardens?
Maybe not yet, but a sub-committee of the city council will soon meet with representatives from a Florida amusement park company that could add a water park for children to west Gilroy’s struggling horticultural dream. The company, Parc Management, out of Jacksonville, seems interested in a long-term arrangement, possibly 30 years, but the Gilroy Gardens Board of Directors and Councilmen Dion Bracco, Perry Woodward and Bob Dillon cautioned that it’s all just talk at this point. Monday night the three men will bring the water park idea and others to the full council before the body creates a master plan for the 536-acre property it bought in March for $13.2 million.
“We think water features are the way to go, but we definitely need some options ahead of (Monday),” Bracco said. “What do we want out there? Something that employs people and brings tourism?”
Board Director and former City Administrator Jay Baksa said, “The board is still trying to keep the dream alive, but when it comes to the business side, we’re all coming to grips with reality.”
The Gardens’ contract with its current operator, Cedar Fair, expires in February 2009. Visitors and city officials have remarked that the park needs a facelift in general, and tax returns from 2007 add to the bleak picture. Bracco – who serves on the ad hoc subcommittee and also sits on the board as a council representative – said attendance also continues to drag along with the larger economy.
“Times are tough. We have attendance, but they’re not spending money. People will come to the park and then leave for their cars to eat lunch and then come back,” Bracco said. “Now we live in a hot area, with the mountains blocking the sea breeze, so having lagoons, about 1-foot deep, and cabanas where people pay – this stuff seems to be really popular. But we still want more information from this company and what they can do for us and what they want in return.”
Parc Management representatives did not return messages Thursday, but the 6-year-old company owns 14 theme and water parks across the country, according to its Web site and news services. It was involved in a proposal to the Gilroy Gardens board last fall, before the seven-member body decided to sell to the city. The proposal came from investors at Alliant Real Estate and Financial Services in Campbell who envisioned a $200 million park with two roller coasters, a water ride, an indoor-outdoor water park, hotel, stores, theaters and restaurants in a miniature downtown.
The Investment group even offered to pay the city 5 percent of the park’s future profits and projected $25 million in gross revenues annually. Gilroy Gardens pays 10 percent of its annual profit, but between 2006 and 2007, the nonprofit lost more than $1 million after earning about $11 million in total revenue, according to the most recent IRS tax returns. Over the past six years, though, Assistant City Administrator Anna Jatczak said the park has earned about $258,000 after incorporating other revenue such as interest on investments.
As far as building on the land, more than 160 acres of the park is now zoned as highway commercial, a designation that allows for a water park. Any high-end resort, though, would also require a conditional use permit for shops or restaurants that sell souvenirs and merchandise related to the park theme, according to City Planning Manager Bill Faus. Despite the scope of any new park, finding a secure financial future with Cedar Fair apparently on the way out has become increasingly important, according to Dillon.
“As far as the park’s viability, I’d like to see it stay, but we’re casting around for people willing to put capital back into park,” said Dillon, who met with Woodward, Gardens Vice President Barbara Granter, Baksa and two others Sept. 3 to watch a presentation as part of what Woodward called “theme park 101.”
“It’s entirely premature to tell you what we think,” Woodward said. “It’s really, as I told the board, completely speculative to say whether that’s acceptable.”
A lucrative park would relieve the city’s stretched coffers, but board and council members said they still remember Michael Bonfante’s dream of a rural, educational park, as well as the importance of preserving Gilroy’s scenic western corridor.
“Back then, we were talking about selling the land to an open space authority, but I’ve also heard from high schoolers and college-aged kids, ‘How come Gilroy Gardens doesn’t have a water park?’ I think there’s a big interest,” Councilwoman Cat Tucker said. “A giant mountain with slides won’t blend in well with the pristine scenery, but it could also be a lucrative park that blends in fine.”
Anything Parc Management does, though, may be geared toward children between the ages of 3 and 9, according to Woodward. Age aside, Save Open Space Gilroy member David Collier urged patience and creativity.
“The city needs to be careful and not get back into a bad business arrangement,” Collier said. “Let’s consider a range of options, maybe a city gardens or reversion to more rural use.”
