Stand-up comic Nate Bargatze is building a theme park. The park, to be called Nateland, will span more than 100 acres and include roller coasters, live shows and more with an estimated price tag of $350 million. The park’s three sections will be based on the famed comedian’s life. While renderings of the proposed park have been released, an exact location has not. He says he wants the park within an hour’s drive of Nashville, his hometown.

Bargatze has brought in design firm Storyland Studios. The team also has identified local and state tax incentives.

Fox News tracked him down for a comment on the proposed park,”If I was going to just focus on arenas or that kind of thing, it felt like it was going be too much me… I wanted to focus on a place that I could have for people to bring their families to, and destinations to create memories with your families. I don’t think there’s a ton of that,” he said.

The ride is nearly over for the Six Flags America and Hurricane Harbor amusement park in Prince George’s County, Maryland. 

An aerial view of Six Flags America in Prince George’s County, Maryland

The park is planning to close after this year’s operating season on Nov. 2, Six Flags Entertainment Corp. announced Thursday. 

Six Flags CEO Richard Zimmerman said it determined the park is “not a strategic fit” in its long-term growth plan. The company said it retained CBRE to market the 500-acre property for sale as a redevelopment play.

“After reviewing a number of options, we believe that marketing the property for redevelopment will generate the highest value and return on investment,” Zimmerman said in a statement. “We anticipate strong interest in the property and will continue to strategically pursue portfolio optimization opportunities as we work to unlock the full value of our portfolio.” 

The park sits just off MD-193 in Bowie, about 14 miles east of D.C. It opened as a Six Flags park in 1999, but the property had previously operated as a wildlife preserve since 1974, The Washington Post reported. 

The park has 70 full-time employees who will be laid off when it closes, with severance and benefits, Six Flags said. Zimmerman called it a “difficult decision” and said the company will work to support its employees. 

The Charlotte-based company said in November it would consider selling some parks after its $8B merger with Cedar Fair Entertainment. Six Flags operates 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and nine resort properties across North America. 

Prince George’s acting County Executive Tara Jackson and the Prince George’s County Economic Development Corp. didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The closure is the latest in a series of blows to the economy of one of America’s richest majority-Black counties. 

Earlier this week, the NFL’s Washington Commanders announced the team plans to leave the county’s Northwest Stadium, which is located about 7 miles west of Six Flags, in 2030 to play in a new stadium at D.C.’s RFK Stadium site. Jackson said the county will work on a “bold vision” to redevelop the Northwest Stadium site. 

In March, President Donald Trump said he would halt the planned move of the FBI headquarters to Greenbelt. 

The county also lost a major private employer in tech company 2U, which had occupied more than 300K SF in New Carrollton before going into bankruptcy and then moving to a smaller space in Northern Virginia. And it has more than 30,000 federal jobs and additional contracting jobs that could be at risk from Trump’s cuts to federal agencies. 

Orlando-based SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. has made an unsolicited offer to buy theme park operator Cedar Fair for $3.4B, according to Bloomberg.

If the deal goes through between the two publicly traded companies, SeaWorld could add 13 theme parks and thousands of acres of real estate to its portfolio. 

SeaWorld’s Antartica: Empire of the Penguin exhibit

Cedar Fair, based in Sandusky, Ohio, owns 13 parks, 12 of which operate seasonally. According to a 2020 year-end Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Cedar Fair’s real estate holdings include about 4,500 acres. SeaWorld owns about 2,000 acres. 

CNBC reported that Cedar Fair’s market cap is $2.8B compared to SeaWorld’s market cap of $4.6B.

CNBC quoted Stifel analyst Steven Wieczynski, who wrote in a research note that SeaWorld “has lacked a more robust geographical footprint and lack of season pass penetration,” and acquiring Cedar Fair “would give them a bigger presence across North America and would allow them to more effectively cross market some of their bigger assets.”

SeaWorld suffered from bad publicity following the 2013 documentary Blackfish, and has since emphasized conservation, research and rides at its theme parks. 

In Sandusky, Cedar Fair’s flagship Cedar Point theme park sits on 870 acres with a waterpark, hotels, restaurants, employee housing complexes, three marinas, an upscale campground, a sports center and 145 undeveloped acres.

Cedar Fair’s other properties include:

• King’s Island, near Cincinnati — 680 acres.
• Knott’s Berry Farm, near Los Angeles — 175 acres.
• California’s Great America, in Santa Clara, California — 175 acres.
• Schlitterbahn Waterpark & Resort in New Braunfels, Texas — 90 acres.
• Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston in Galveston, Texas — 40 acres.
• Canada’s Wonderland, near Toronto — 295 acres.
• Carowinds, in Charlotte, North Carolina — 400 acres.
• Kings Dominion, near Richmond, Virginia — 740 acres.
• Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pennsylvania — 210 acres.
• Worlds of Fun, in Kansas City, Missouri — 350 acres.
• Valleyfair, near Minneapolis/St. Paul — 190 acres.
• Michigan’s Adventure, in Muskegon, Michigan — 260 acres.

Cedar Fair also manages and operates a theme park in Gilroy, California. All of the parks operate seasonally except for Knott’s Berry Farm, which is open year-round.

Combined, Cedar Fair’s parks host 26 million guests annually and generate revenues of more than $1.3B, according to its website. A November earnings release indicated attendance in Q3 of 2021 was 82% compared to the same period of 2019, yet net revenues totaled a record $753M, up 5% from the same time frame. 

According to SeaWorld’s 2020 year-end filing, it owns just over 2,000 acres that include:

• SeaWorld, Discovery Cove and Aquatica in Orlando — 418 acres.
• Busch Gardens, Adventure Island and SeaWorld headquarters in Tampa — 362 acres.
• A breeding and holding facility in Dade City — 109 acres.
• Sesame Place San Diego — 66 acres.
• SeaWorld, Aquatica and Discovery Point in San Antonio — 415 acres.
• Busch Gardens and Water Country USA in Williamsburg, Virginia — 654 acres.
• Sesame Place, near Philadelphia — 55 acres.
• SeaWorld also leases approximately 190 acres from the city of San Diego for SeaWorld San Diego. 

Of its holdings, about 400 acres of land are for future development.

According to the Sandusky Register, local officials expressed concern that Cedar Fair’s corporate headquarters could be relocated and affect the tax base if the company were to be acquired. However, Cedar Fair has been targeted for takeover before; company leaders rejected a $4B takeover bid from Six Flags in 2019.