Wet’n’Wild Hawaii sold to Kansas City company

Wet’n’Wild Hawaii is changing owners again.

EPR Properties, a Kansas City, Mo.-based specialty real estate investment trust, said Thursday it is buying the Kapolei water park from CNL Lifestyle Properties Inc. as part of a $455.5 million deal involving the Northstar California Ski Resort, 15 water and amusement parks, and five small family entertainment centers.

The transaction calls for Oklahoma City-based Premier Parks LLC to remain as the operator of Wet’n’Wild Hawaii under a 40-year operating lease on land owned by the James Campbell Co.

Eleven other water and amusement parks managed by Premier Parks also received 40-year operating leases.

It is the Kapolei park’s third ownership change in 10 years.

“Wet’n’Wild Hawaii has an even brighter future under this new agreement with EPR Properties as it gives Premier Parks new resources to grow and improve our theme and water parks,” Premier Parks President and CEO Kieran Burke said in a statement. “The new 40-year operating leases awarded in conjunction with this purchase give our parks much greater stability and investment in the years to come. Our park-goers won’t see any changes in the day-to-day operations of the park.”

As of the end of last year, EPR had investments in 149 megaplex theaters, eight entertainment retail centers, eight family entertainment centers, 11 metro ski parks, five water parks and 25 golf entertainment complexes, according to its website.

Wet’n’Wild Hawaii General Manager Jerry Pupillo, who has been with the Kapolei park for all but five years since it broke ground in October 1998, said in a phone interview that the new ownership gives the park “some long-term planning stability.”

The park, which features more than 20 rides and attractions, had one of its best years in revenue in 2016, Pupillo said.

“We had strong annual-pass sales, strong groups and strong tourism numbers,” he said.

Pupillo said there are no new attractions planned for this year, but a planning session is scheduled for the fall.

“That’s when we’ll really start looking at the details for the future,” he said.

CNL, an Orlando, Fla.-based real estate investment trust, acquired the park for $25.8 million on May 6, 2009, and changed the name to Wet’n’Wild Hawaii from Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park. CNL leased the park to Australian-based Village Roadshow Ltd., one of the largest theme park operators in Australia. Village Roadshow had bought the park for $27 million in 2008 from Waters of Kapolei LLC, which opened the park in May 1999. Dentist Jack Harrington and lawyer Brooks Cutter, managing partners of Waters of Kapolei, were among 30 investors who invested $17 million to build the park.

In November 2013 CNL announced a deal in which Premier Parks would take over the lease of the park the following month from Village Roadshow, which was divesting its water park interests in the United States to focus on other countries where the financial return might be greater.