New Owners Want to Keep Hard Rock Brand

New Owners Want to Keep Hard Rock Brand
[09.02.20 RCPRO]

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, (Assoicated Press) - One of the new owners of Hard Rock Park said Wednesday he wants to keep the rock 'n' roll theme park's famous name and hire 750 employees to get the Myrtle Beach venture back up and running by this summer.

A federal bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved the sale of Hard Rock Park for $25 million to a group of investors, including Baker Leisure Group, which has done work for The Walt Disney Co. and Six Flags. Other investors include Freestyle Park International; Roundbox Advisors; and local investors, including Thomas Hiles and D. Tim Duncan, who helped found the park.

"The park's in great shape," Steve Baker, president and chief executive of Baker Leisure Group, said Wednesday. "It's a big effort, but we'll make it."

After seven years of planning, the $400 million, 55-acre park opened last April with concerts by the Eagles and The Moody Blues and was the biggest single investment ever in South Carolina tourism. Experts said officials couldn't have picked a worse time to open because tourism drop spawned by rising gas prices, ripples from the recession and the credit crisis.

By September, the park had closed, and the company that owned it, HRP Myrtle Beach Holdings, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. No bidder who could meet the minimum price emerged when the property went up for auction in December, and the park's owner converted to Chapter 7 so assets could be liquidated to pay creditors.

Baker's Florida-based company, which worked previously with Hard Rock to grow the company's global restaurant chain, wants to get the park reopened by Memorial Day, under the Hard Rock brand.

"We're very desirous of keeping the name," Baker said. "We think that's it's a very strong brand and has instant recognition almost on a worldwide basis."

Prepared to bid on the park at auction, Baker said he ultimately decided to hold off in hopes of a better deal.

"We started talking directly to some of the creditors and some of the banks that were holding the notes and starting putting a plan together," Baker said. "And then we were fortunate enough to find the capital."

That capital came in the form of $25 million from Freestyle Park International, part of a Russian development company that is building a 3 million-square-foot indoor resort featuring an indoor ski slope, restaurants and a shopping center outside Moscow.

The new owners say they're taking a more streamlined approach to managing the park. In the first season, individual ticket prices will be reduced from $50 to $40, season pass prices will be cut in half, and Baker says owners are budgeting for about 750,000 visitors — a dramatic decrease from the 3 million the park's previous owners anticipated.

But attaining even those diluted goals may be optimistic, one industry consultant says.

"With everything lined up perfectly, 750,000 people would be a double grand slam home run," said Dennis Speigel, president of Cincinnati-based International Theme Park Services who called the park's failure his industry's worst. "I wish them the best, but there are so many issues that have to be corrected, and some of them can't be corrected, like the location."