Cypress Gardens Closing Leaves 223 Prime Acres on the Table

Polk County industrial real estate brokers familiar with nearby commercial projects tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity that the prime lakefront dirt could generate bidding prices of at least $300,000 per acre ($6.89 per sf), for a total $66.9 million.

Bill Reynolds, a former Anheuser-Busch Co. executive who is president of the seven-investor, brewer's real estate management group that bought Cypress Gardens for an undisclosed sum in 1995, couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline to learn whether he plans to put all or some of the park land up for sale.

Internationally known for its botanical gardens and the Southern Belles water-skiing attraction, Cypress Gardens officially closed April 13. An estimated 28,000 guests paid $35 admission to see the curtain ring down on one of Florida's oldest natural entertainment sites.

Dwindling attendance, accompanied by a sagging economy and the war in Iraq are blamed for the park's demise. For example, about 1.4 million guests visited Cypress Gardens in 1987, according to figures from the Dick Pope Sr. family, who initially opened the attraction Jan. 2, 1936. But by 2002, the attendance count was down to 150,000 visitors per year.

Although the park's land is considered prime for almost any category of commercial development, some tourism industry watchers think Cypress Gardens and other privately owned, smaller theme parks may still survive, even as larger players such as Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and Sea World spew advertising dollars to lure more guests to their locations.

"Florida tourism has been impacted by a sort of 'perfect storm' resulting from the convergence of a weak economy, punctuated by the event of Sept. 11, 2001 and underscored by the Iraq War," Robin L. Webb, central region managing broker, Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT, Winter Park, FL, tells GlobeSt.com.

"Publicly held destination giants, such as Disney and Universal, are weathering the storm with creativity within their parks, like opening new rides or attractions and expansion of their advertising campaigns," says Webb, a hospitality industry professional for 30 years.

He says, "Small, nature-driven attractions such as Cypress Gardens, are faced with the difficulty of integrating such new-age draws as Universal's Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast into their Old Florida themes, and are limited by justifiable budget expenditures on marketing."

Webb says "the smaller attractions are further constrained by the simple availability of funds to spend on major campaigns. The reality is that Bok Tower [at nearby Lake Wales, FL] can no more take on Disney in media than Kissimmee's 21-room Wonderland Inn can tackle Marriott International."

But the broker says, "there is a place for those smaller, nature-driven, Florida attractions" because Florida residents "have always been Florida's largest source of tourism dollars."

Additionally, "the baby boomer generation literally grew up on those attractions and has a place in their hearts for them," Webb says. "When both groups again become more mobile, less-glued to the televised war, put Sept. 11 behind them and benefit from a recovering economy, attendance at those attractions which are conveniently located and which have been able to manage through the difficult times, will rebound."

But location will almost always be a deciding factor in the success or failure of any real estate-related venture, Webb says. "There is a practical issue of locational obsolescence and those parks which are remotely located and have been bypassed by changing traffic patterns will always have the greatest battle for survival, even at the end of this 'perfect storm.'