Luna Park Sydney Wild Mouse

[downunder]

Luna Park Sydney's Wild Mouse appears to be fully re-assembled now and looks good.

In other news, Halloscream sucked less this year (was absolutely abysmal last year and great in 2022).

[jjuttup]

Park still badly needs a paint though. 

[Ashley Jeffery]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18SYNjo8Fq/

[themagician]

1 hour ago, Ashley Jeffery said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18SYNjo8Fq/

 

[downunder]

Looking good, just renewed my season pass, hopefully the mouse will be up and running soon.

[downunder]

Checked it out yesterday. No trains on yet. Saw a piece of the old track in the boneyard to the side of Big Dipper.

Red train for Bog Dipper is in a highly dismantled state at the moment.

 

[jjuttup]

3 hours ago, downunder said:

Bog Dipper

I believe that would be Rivals.

[downunder]

3 minutes ago, jjuttup said:

I believe that would be Rivals.

Lol it's the Bog Dipper if you eat at the Hungry Horse on the other side.

[Escaper]

It is great to see the Wild Mouse get the rebuild it deserves. 
 

Just send the Big Dipper like that, she’ll be fine..

[downunder]

I checked out Wild Mouse from Hair Raiser on Saturday. There's a straight piece of track missing on the station side turnaround before last set of drops. No trains out yet.

Big difference between the front (much smoother) and back row (shaky) of Big Dipper.

[Brad2912]

Luna Park has also just been sold to an aussie pub group - Oscar Hotels.

They'll be focusing on clearly the hospo potential of the site with restaurants etc 

[downunder]

Yeah I saw that in the news. I've been to Gronalund in Sweden which is a really good example of having vibrant hospo scene integrated with an amusement park.

Will be interesting to see what happens, LPS appears to have partly given up on functions and events given the re-purposing of the big top and crystal palace. I guess things like Dream Circus (utterly excrebable) are expected to make more money.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Luna Park sale: Pubs operator Oscars beat out theme park giant to snap up iconic site

Quote

Sydney’s Luna Park has been snapped up by a major pub group for more than $50 million, despite interest from operators of theme parks such as Warner Bros. Movie World and Dreamworld.

Oscars Group, the owner of a string of pubs – including Hotel Sweeney’s in the Sydney CBD – and accommodation including Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise has agreed to buy the amusement park from Canadian asset management giant Brookfield after a six-month sales process for the harbourfront site.

NSW hospitality group Oscars has acquired Luna Park under ambitions to turn it into a “top five tourist destination”. Dean Sewell

Oscars is one of the largest privately owned hospitality groups in NSW. Its managing director, Bill Gravanis, said the company had big ambitions for Luna Park and hoped to transform it into one of the five most popular tourist attractions in the state. He said it already has strong investment fundamentals and brand recognition.

“It is an iconic waterfront landmark on the best harbour in the world that presents a great opportunity for the Oscars business,” Mr Gravanis said.

With its iconic entrance and position close to Sydney Harbour Bridge, the amusement park is well-known and loved by generations of Sydneysiders. But it has had its ups and downs, including several closures and a planning battle over a new ride in 2018.

The sale campaign drew interest from entertainment and theme park operators from the US, Europe and Asia. Local operators such as Village Roadshow – the owner of Gold Coast theme parks Warner Bros. Movie World, Sea World, Paradise Country and Wet’n’Wild – and Dreamworld owner Coast Entertainment Holdings also showed interest in the asset.

While initial sale price expectations were for around $70 million, the amusement park changed hands for a price in the mid-$50 million range, according to sources close to the deal but not permitted to speak publicly.

CBRE’s Simon Rooney, who negotiated the sale with his colleagues Paul Ryan and James Douglas on behalf of Brookfield, said Luna Park was a sought-after investment due to being a trophy asset that was rarely traded and uniquely located.

“The diverse opportunities to leverage the existing assets and customer base to drive revenue growth via additional amusement, immersive and food and beverage initiatives were key drawcards for domestic and global buyers seeking value-add investment opportunities,” Mr Rooney said.

The deal hands Oscars Group the Luna Park business, as well as the leasehold interest for the amusement park, which includes its boardwalk and carpark. The lease for the amusement park and boardwalk have an expiry date of August 2044, while the car park lease expires in August 2103.

The freehold for the venue is owned by the Luna Park Reserve Trust, an agency of the NSW government.

The sale will free up capital for Brookfield to pursue development opportunities within its core areas of focus: premium offices, warehouses, seniors living and student accommodation.

Brookfield took control of Luna Park in 2007 as part of its acquisition of builder Multiplex, which owned the amusement park at the time. It spent $40 million over the past four years to prepare the amusement park for sale with additions such as the $15 million Immersive Big Top.

Luna Park chief executive John Hughes said that as Luna Park Sydney entered its 90th year, it had “exceptional momentum in the business generating record ticket sales and visitation” from new attractions such as its Vegesaurs immersive experience, New Year’s Eve festival and heritage-listed wild mouse roller coaster, which is set to reopen following a two-year restoration.

 

[Narra]

8 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Local operators such as Village Roadshow – the owner of Gold Coast theme parks Warner Bros. Movie World, Sea World, Paradise Country and Wet’n’Wild – and Dreamworld owner Coast Entertainment Holdings also showed interest in the asset.

First I've heard of this, wonder how seriously they showed interest

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I've no idea, but you'd assume most park operators would have been approached by the selling agent to gauge their interest. That would be enough for the "journo" to write "they showed interest"

[downunder]

I'm sure a lot of operators would have kicked the tyres to see what's what. Though it's not like when it's a real competitor where they do that to get a look at their books. Lol maybe Village could have relocated The Flash there.

[Baconjack]

On 2/12/2024 at 3:33 PM, downunder said:

Will be interesting to see what happens, LPS appears to have partly given up on functions and events given the re-purposing of the big top and crystal palace. I guess things like Dream Circus (utterly excrebable) are expected to make more money.

Big top has always been the cash cow for LPS and effectively bankrolls the park. It was making shitloads on concerts and events for years and even to this day it’s a quality venue for those things. Pretty sure events can be still booked there based on the website.

Not sure if a $29 a head upcharge show is going to beat that but we will see. Sure it’s an innovative way to introduce new attractions when you h no longer have space to plop in flats from a showman for school holiday periods

like what else could they do? Run a train on Big Dipper backwards for summer? I don’t think they’ve run both trains on that thing since the summer period it opened

On another note the pub group that’s bought the park are probably seeing the park for what it is - a cash cow they can let run for 20 years in its relatively new state with minimal capex. Its a shame because the only thing I’d say the park needs is the new gen Intamin hot racer train for Big Dipper which might be the silver bullet to how rough it is

Edited January 4 by Baconjack

[downunder]

@Baconjack I agree with you big top is a cash cow for concerts / functions, so hopefully after the lull during covid they'd look to exploit that fully. Likewise, Crystal palace. Dream Circus was an admirable pivot, but it was absolutely abysmal IMO. I imagine the technology is there to utilise for other presentations, even integration into a corporate function. Not sure when they last had a concert there, but hopefully there'll be some gigs happening in the future.

It will be interesting to see what the hospo people do. A vibrant dining/night-life scene combined with the existing amusement park might be good.

[Baconjack]

They’ve spent money fairly recently redoing all the indoor seating areas in the park and retheming all the food vendors. I’d personally keep expectations very low. The last owners milked the park for all it was worth for a good decade and a half (longer than they wanted to tbf) before the rides got old and everything non heritage listed needed to be swapped out for new equipment ahead of a sale. If anything we’ll see the same cycle until the park gets another refresh in 15-20 years’ time. 

Haven’t watched Dream circus but from watching a few YouTube videos of it, it’s fair to say that the tech is part of an upgrade to the AV system and can be repurposed for other events they run in there. They’ve had gigs at the big top as recently as 6 months ago. These guys aren’t idiots they know the big top is a crucial component of their business and allows the rides section to run at a loss off peak.

Edited January 5 by Baconjack

[downunder]

^Good to know, it's a cool place for gigs. My partner and I went to Dream Circus and we absolutely hated it, couldn't wait for it to finish (she's total non-theme park person, so an okay sample space of perspectives). Hopefully most of the money was spent on the tech and not the production.

Back to topic lol, anyone seen any movement with the Wild Mouse? Last time I checked, one piece of track was missing and there were no cars on site.