Movie World, Wet’n’Wild site sold for $100m
Village Roadshow has sold the home of its Warner Bros Movie World and Wet’n’Wild Gold Coast theme parks for about $100 million.
The buyer of the 154ha Gold Coast site is Altis Property Partners on behalf of LGIAsuper, the super fund of Queensland local government employees that manages more than $11 billion worth of retirement savings.
The deal is structured as a sale and leaseback, with Village Roadshow striking a long-term lease that will allow it to keep operating other theme parks including Australian Outback Spectacular, Paradise Country and Village Roadshow Studios.
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A Topgolf venue is also under construction on the site, and development approval has been given for a nine-storey hotel.
Colliers International were agents on the deal.
Village Roadshow has taken a 30-year lease over the site, with the option of extending it to a total of 90 years through six further terms of 10 years each.
The Gold Coast land is home to Movie World and Wet’n’Wild theme parks.
The starting rent is $6.2 million a year, with rent reviews of 3% a year.
Village Roadshow says it will use cash from the sale to cut its debt levels.
When the land was offered for sale in September, Village Roadshow’s theme parks chief executive, Clark Kirby, said the group was committed to its theme parks business and that the sale and leaseback would unlock the value in the land.
The deal comes a little over a year since the accident on a white-water rafting ride at rival theme park Dreamworld, owned by Ardent Leisure, in which four people died.
Ardent recently agreed to sell its bowling and arcades arms to The Entertainment & Education Group, owned by funds advised by Quadrant Private Equity and the Steinberg family, for $160 million.
Ardent plans to reinvest the proceeds in its Queensland theme parks and its US-based Main Event business, its two remaining units.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
