Freestyle Music Park May Get A New Ticket To Ride
Mortgage lender buys theme park out of foreclosure
The theme park formerly known as Freestyle Music Park might be back in business in time for summer 2012.
FPI US LLC, the mortgage holder of the former park that has been closed for two years, bought the property out of foreclosure this week with a goal of reopening the theme park in Fantasy Harbour in time for next summer, its attorneys said Wednesday.
“There’s a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel,” said David Slough, an attorney for FPI US.
Elected leaders and business owners near the park heralded the news Wednesday, saying it could help rejuvenate an area that desperately needs it.
“Any time you can take something that is dead and you can bring some life to it, it is good,” said Horry County Councilman Gary Loftus, whose district includes the theme park area.
FPI US is looking for either a partner to manage and operate the park or a buyer who can purchase the park and reopen it, Slough said.
Talks are in the early stages, so it’s not clear exactly when the park would open, whether it would still be called Freestyle or whether it would create a new theme.
“They hope it reopens and it’s a big success,” said Franklin Daniels, an attorney for FPI US. “They don’t want to see it be a vacant theme park. They are not willing to just let it go.”
FPI US LLC, which had foreclosed on former park operators FPI MB Entertainment LLC a year ago, bought the property at the Horry County foreclosure auction Monday through a “credit bid” of $7 million. That means FPI US gets the property but doesn’t pay that amount because it’s already owed more than that by the former park operators. The total debt was $34 million, according to court records. Other businesses that were still owed money by Freestyle are out of luck.
FPI US won the auction over one other bidder, Alton Swann, a real estate professional in Myrtle Beach who said during a brief telephone conversation Wednesday that he had been working on a plan to bring somebody in to take over the park.
“I’d just like to see something happen to it,” he said. “It’s a shame to see it go to waste.”
The 50-acre theme park has sat idle for about two years, a far cry from the hoopla that marked its first and second openings during a two-year period.
The theme park, which was built for $400 million, originally was branded as Hard Rock Park and debuted in 2008. It filed for bankruptcy protection after a slow first season.
The park’s second run started early the following year when a group of investors bought it out of bankruptcy for $25 million in February 2009 and reopened it as Freestyle Music Park a few months later. It also fell into financial troubles after just one summer - a season where tourism statewide took a hit because of the lagging economy that kept many people from traveling or prompted them to cut back on their spending if they did go on vacation.
The park has been closed since, riding a wave of cases in court. With the litigation behind it, the park can move forward, Daniels said.
FPI plans to look at what went wrong the first two times the park operated, identify what needs to happen to make the park a success and find a buyer or good partner to manage the park, Daniels said.
That means the theme, marketing and ticket prices – which some critics said were too high, especially during the tough economy – all will be reviewed, he said. Tickets for admission to Freestyle started at about $40 for adults and about $30 for children, though the park dropped them later in the summer 2009 to less than $20 for special promotions.
“Many things in the past have to be done differently,” Daniels said. “They’ve learned a lot of hard lessons, lost a lot of money. But they are committed to it.”
Some business owners in the Fantasy Harbour area, off U.S. 501 at the Intracoastal Waterway, said a revived theme park could be the first step in getting the area back to where it should be. A re-opened theme park could bring more people to the area and make it look better, said Robbie Love, owner of The X Sports Center off George Bishop Parkway near the park.
“Definitely, that’s a boost,” he said. “That should be a good shot in the arm for the area.”
Having the park reopen might not translate into more business at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center on Fantasy Harbour Boulevard, but it would help the look of the area, said Lori Posma, the hotel’s sales director.
“That would be great,” she said. “Just the perception of the area - everybody says it looks so decrepit over here...Any action over here would be fabulous.”
During the past two years, theme park operators and others have stopped by the park interested in buying some of the rides, but the investors didn’t want to sell off the park piece by piece, still optimistic that the theme park could eventually work in Myrtle Beach, Daniels said. A small crew has continued to work at the park, including an engineer who regularly runs the rides to keep them in shape, Daniels said.
“You start selling off the rides, you destroy the value of the theme park,” he said. “They truly are committed. They want to see it reopen. They want to see it work.”
But they’ve learned lessons from the park’s back-to-back failures, Daniels said.
Loftus said a theme park can work in the Myrtle Beach area if it’s done right.
“There were many issues that kind of led to the demise of the first two. Obviously, there were a heckuva lot more that went wrong than right,” Loftus said. “Done correctly, and with the right marketing, it should have a chance.”
One culprit that hampered the park’s second run was the Great Recession, which led to an 8 percent drop in tourism in South Carolina in 2009, according to figures released this week by the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism department. Tourism throughout the state generated $14 billion in 2009, down about $1 billion from the previous year.
Tourism officials have said the industry has picked up since then.
FPI’s talks with potential managers or buyers are in the early stages, and it’s unclear when FPI would announce details of a reopening. It probably would take between six and nine months to adequately prepare the park and promote it, though Freestyle owners did it in three months after they bought the park out of bankruptcy.
“There’s no timeframe,” Daniels said. “They are working hard.”
Posma of the Clarion hotel, like Loftus, said a theme park could be successful here.
“If they take input they have learned and apply it, commit to it, I think they can make it work,” she said. “I’m hoping for the best.” -Sun News
Mortgage lender buys theme park out of foreclosure
The theme park formerly known as Freestyle Music Park might be back in business in time for summer 2012.
FPI US LLC, the mortgage holder of the former park that has been closed for two years, bought the property out of foreclosure this week with a goal of reopening the theme park in Fantasy Harbour in time for next summer, its attorneys said Wednesday.
“There’s a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel,” said David Slough, an attorney for FPI US.
Elected leaders and business owners near the park heralded the news Wednesday, saying it could help rejuvenate an area that desperately needs it.
“Any time you can take something that is dead and you can bring some life to it, it is good,” said Horry County Councilman Gary Loftus, whose district includes the theme park area.
FPI US is looking for either a partner to manage and operate the park or a buyer who can purchase the park and reopen it, Slough said.
Talks are in the early stages, so it’s not clear exactly when the park would open, whether it would still be called Freestyle or whether it would create a new theme.
“They hope it reopens and it’s a big success,” said Franklin Daniels, an attorney for FPI US. “They don’t want to see it be a vacant theme park. They are not willing to just let it go.”
FPI US LLC, which had foreclosed on former park operators FPI MB Entertainment LLC a year ago, bought the property at the Horry County foreclosure auction Monday through a “credit bid” of $7 million. That means FPI US gets the property but doesn’t pay that amount because it’s already owed more than that by the former park operators. The total debt was $34 million, according to court records. Other businesses that were still owed money by Freestyle are out of luck.
FPI US won the auction over one other bidder, Alton Swann, a real estate professional in Myrtle Beach who said during a brief telephone conversation Wednesday that he had been working on a plan to bring somebody in to take over the park.
“I’d just like to see something happen to it,” he said. “It’s a shame to see it go to waste.”
The 50-acre theme park has sat idle for about two years, a far cry from the hoopla that marked its first and second openings during a two-year period.
The theme park, which was built for $400 million, originally was branded as Hard Rock Park and debuted in 2008. It filed for bankruptcy protection after a slow first season.
The park’s second run started early the following year when a group of investors bought it out of bankruptcy for $25 million in February 2009 and reopened it as Freestyle Music Park a few months later. It also fell into financial troubles after just one summer - a season where tourism statewide took a hit because of the lagging economy that kept many people from traveling or prompted them to cut back on their spending if they did go on vacation.
The park has been closed since, riding a wave of cases in court. With the litigation behind it, the park can move forward, Daniels said.
FPI plans to look at what went wrong the first two times the park operated, identify what needs to happen to make the park a success and find a buyer or good partner to manage the park, Daniels said.
That means the theme, marketing and ticket prices – which some critics said were too high, especially during the tough economy – all will be reviewed, he said. Tickets for admission to Freestyle started at about $40 for adults and about $30 for children, though the park dropped them later in the summer 2009 to less than $20 for special promotions.
“Many things in the past have to be done differently,” Daniels said. “They’ve learned a lot of hard lessons, lost a lot of money. But they are committed to it.”
Some business owners in the Fantasy Harbour area, off U.S. 501 at the Intracoastal Waterway, said a revived theme park could be the first step in getting the area back to where it should be. A re-opened theme park could bring more people to the area and make it look better, said Robbie Love, owner of The X Sports Center off George Bishop Parkway near the park.
“Definitely, that’s a boost,” he said. “That should be a good shot in the arm for the area.”
Having the park reopen might not translate into more business at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center on Fantasy Harbour Boulevard, but it would help the look of the area, said Lori Posma, the hotel’s sales director.
“That would be great,” she said. “Just the perception of the area - everybody says it looks so decrepit over here...Any action over here would be fabulous.”
During the past two years, theme park operators and others have stopped by the park interested in buying some of the rides, but the investors didn’t want to sell off the park piece by piece, still optimistic that the theme park could eventually work in Myrtle Beach, Daniels said. A small crew has continued to work at the park, including an engineer who regularly runs the rides to keep them in shape, Daniels said.
“You start selling off the rides, you destroy the value of the theme park,” he said. “They truly are committed. They want to see it reopen. They want to see it work.”
But they’ve learned lessons from the park’s back-to-back failures, Daniels said.
Loftus said a theme park can work in the Myrtle Beach area if it’s done right.
“There were many issues that kind of led to the demise of the first two. Obviously, there were a heckuva lot more that went wrong than right,” Loftus said. “Done correctly, and with the right marketing, it should have a chance.”
One culprit that hampered the park’s second run was the Great Recession, which led to an 8 percent drop in tourism in South Carolina in 2009, according to figures released this week by the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism department. Tourism throughout the state generated $14 billion in 2009, down about $1 billion from the previous year.
Tourism officials have said the industry has picked up since then.
FPI’s talks with potential managers or buyers are in the early stages, and it’s unclear when FPI would announce details of a reopening. It probably would take between six and nine months to adequately prepare the park and promote it, though Freestyle owners did it in three months after they bought the park out of bankruptcy.
“There’s no timeframe,” Daniels said. “They are working hard.”
Posma of the Clarion hotel, like Loftus, said a theme park could be successful here.
“If they take input they have learned and apply it, commit to it, I think they can make it work,” she said. “I’m hoping for the best.” -Sun News
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Girls' Answer To STDs: Vaccinate Boys, Doctors Say
What's the best way to protect teenage girls from sexually transmitted diseases? Some doctors in Charlotte say the answer is to vaccinate boys.
More than 65 million Americans - that's one in five - carry a sexually transmitted disease. The most common one - the human papilloma virus, or HPV - affects more than half of sexually active Americans at some point, according to the federal government.
Since 2007, health officials have recommended that adolescent girls get vaccinated against HPV because it can lead to cervical cancer later in life.
Now, they're also suggesting the vaccine for boys to prevent genital warts and anal cancer, rare symptoms of HPV. But for some doctors, vaccinating boys is also a favored new strategy in preventing the spread of the virus to girls.
Dr. Sameena Evers, a physician at Dilworth Pediatrics, encourages boys to get vaccinated against HPV "so that girls don't get it." This kind of practice is called "herd immunity," or vaccinating one segment of the population to protect another.
"It's no surprise that women are getting it from the men in the world," said Evers.
A necessary vaccine
Officials say along with Pap smears, vaccinating girls is the most effective way to prevent cervical cancer.
They say it's as important for girls as vaccinating against illnesses like tetanus, meningitis, and the flu. The series of three shots cost about $400 or more but are covered by Medicaid, and most private insurance programs.
Since the approval of the vaccine for boys in 2009, health officials have debated whether vaccinating boys for girls' sake is an effective way to control cervical cancer. In part, there are questions about how long the vaccine stays active in boys' bodies.
The federal government recommends the vaccine for boys, too, but it's considered less urgent. It's optional for doctors to tell boys and their parents about it.
But many doctors are recommending it to both boys and girls with the same urgency. Every year, cervical cancer leads to about 4,000 deaths in the United States. (By comparison, however, breast cancer kills 10 times as many women.)
The correlation between cervical cancer and some types of HPV is clear: the primary cause of the cancer in women is HPV. One out of 10,000 women who contract HPV end up with cervical cancer.
Most infections clear on their own within a couple of years and don't develop into cervical cancer. Nonetheless, some 35 million doses of Gardasil have been distributed in the U.S.
Coverage varies
In February of 2010, North Carolina began covering the vaccine for boys through Medicaid. But not all private insurance plans cover the shots.
Evers has seen private coverage increase in the past year. As a result, the number of boys getting the vaccine is growing, she said. In June of last year, 19 boys and 17 girls were vaccinated against HPV at Dilworth Pediatrics. During the same month this year, 47 boys and 11 girls received the vaccine.
Parents say they're concerned with keeping their sons free of genital warts and cancer. The idea of protecting future girlfriends is a secondary concern, said Evers.
In addition, men are generally more willing to get the vaccine when it's described as preventing not just genital warts but cancer, too, according to a UNC Chapel Hill study.
The N.C. Immunization Registry recently found that out of 388 boys it surveyed in the past year, about 13 percent had received the vaccine. The survey showed the number of girls getting vaccinated was much higher, at 39 percent.
Some attribute the difference to heavy advertising for Gardasil by Merck, the manufacturer, that targeted middle and high school-aged girls and their parents. The pharmaceutical company hasn't done that for boys.
Health experts say patients are learning about Gardasil mostly from their doctors.
Dr. Preeti Matkins, the medical director of the Teen Health Connection in Charlotte, encourages her male patients to get the Gardasil shots. And when Gardasil was approved for boys, she enthusiastically sent her then 14-year-old son to get his shots.
"I don't want you to get cancer or warts in your genital area," Matkins told her children when they objected.
She said that discussions about Gardasil make some parents uncomfortable, especially when it comes to the teenage children they believe won't become sexually active for a long time. Sometimes, doctors themselves are uncomfortable discussing it with parents, she said.
And then there's the parental fear that giving their child the vaccine encourages sexual activity, she said.
Religious groups such as the Family Research Council have advocated strongly against the Gardasil vaccine for these reasons. They emphasize abstinence over immunization.
"Religion is often used as reason for non-vaccinators ..." Matkins said.
But Matkins said "teens in Charlotte are having sex." According to Mecklenburg county's most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey, half of high school students have had sex.
Nationally, while teens and young adults represent only a quarter of the sexually active population, they account for half of the new STD cases every year.
Some doctors skeptical
Not all doctors are on board with use of the Gardasil vaccine for either gender. Some have criticized the speed with which the drug was approved. They say Pap smears are a highly effective tool for detecting cervical cancer and that the vaccine is just another layer of cost.
Once a consultant for Merck, Dr. Diane Harper is one of Gardasil's most outspoken critics. One of the biggest problems is "the way it's been marketed and sold and crammed down people's throats so that companies have a profitable bottom line for making their investment into the research," said Harper, a professor of medicine at the University of Missouri.
She is convinced that if Gardasil vaccine for boys becomes a higher priority, "Merck will hit the advertising market hard for boys."
And parents will start hearing about it a lot more. –Sun News
What's the best way to protect teenage girls from sexually transmitted diseases? Some doctors in Charlotte say the answer is to vaccinate boys.
More than 65 million Americans - that's one in five - carry a sexually transmitted disease. The most common one - the human papilloma virus, or HPV - affects more than half of sexually active Americans at some point, according to the federal government.
Since 2007, health officials have recommended that adolescent girls get vaccinated against HPV because it can lead to cervical cancer later in life.
Now, they're also suggesting the vaccine for boys to prevent genital warts and anal cancer, rare symptoms of HPV. But for some doctors, vaccinating boys is also a favored new strategy in preventing the spread of the virus to girls.
Dr. Sameena Evers, a physician at Dilworth Pediatrics, encourages boys to get vaccinated against HPV "so that girls don't get it." This kind of practice is called "herd immunity," or vaccinating one segment of the population to protect another.
"It's no surprise that women are getting it from the men in the world," said Evers.
A necessary vaccine
Officials say along with Pap smears, vaccinating girls is the most effective way to prevent cervical cancer.
They say it's as important for girls as vaccinating against illnesses like tetanus, meningitis, and the flu. The series of three shots cost about $400 or more but are covered by Medicaid, and most private insurance programs.
Since the approval of the vaccine for boys in 2009, health officials have debated whether vaccinating boys for girls' sake is an effective way to control cervical cancer. In part, there are questions about how long the vaccine stays active in boys' bodies.
The federal government recommends the vaccine for boys, too, but it's considered less urgent. It's optional for doctors to tell boys and their parents about it.
But many doctors are recommending it to both boys and girls with the same urgency. Every year, cervical cancer leads to about 4,000 deaths in the United States. (By comparison, however, breast cancer kills 10 times as many women.)
The correlation between cervical cancer and some types of HPV is clear: the primary cause of the cancer in women is HPV. One out of 10,000 women who contract HPV end up with cervical cancer.
Most infections clear on their own within a couple of years and don't develop into cervical cancer. Nonetheless, some 35 million doses of Gardasil have been distributed in the U.S.
Coverage varies
In February of 2010, North Carolina began covering the vaccine for boys through Medicaid. But not all private insurance plans cover the shots.
Evers has seen private coverage increase in the past year. As a result, the number of boys getting the vaccine is growing, she said. In June of last year, 19 boys and 17 girls were vaccinated against HPV at Dilworth Pediatrics. During the same month this year, 47 boys and 11 girls received the vaccine.
Parents say they're concerned with keeping their sons free of genital warts and cancer. The idea of protecting future girlfriends is a secondary concern, said Evers.
In addition, men are generally more willing to get the vaccine when it's described as preventing not just genital warts but cancer, too, according to a UNC Chapel Hill study.
The N.C. Immunization Registry recently found that out of 388 boys it surveyed in the past year, about 13 percent had received the vaccine. The survey showed the number of girls getting vaccinated was much higher, at 39 percent.
Some attribute the difference to heavy advertising for Gardasil by Merck, the manufacturer, that targeted middle and high school-aged girls and their parents. The pharmaceutical company hasn't done that for boys.
Health experts say patients are learning about Gardasil mostly from their doctors.
Dr. Preeti Matkins, the medical director of the Teen Health Connection in Charlotte, encourages her male patients to get the Gardasil shots. And when Gardasil was approved for boys, she enthusiastically sent her then 14-year-old son to get his shots.
"I don't want you to get cancer or warts in your genital area," Matkins told her children when they objected.
She said that discussions about Gardasil make some parents uncomfortable, especially when it comes to the teenage children they believe won't become sexually active for a long time. Sometimes, doctors themselves are uncomfortable discussing it with parents, she said.
And then there's the parental fear that giving their child the vaccine encourages sexual activity, she said.
Religious groups such as the Family Research Council have advocated strongly against the Gardasil vaccine for these reasons. They emphasize abstinence over immunization.
"Religion is often used as reason for non-vaccinators ..." Matkins said.
But Matkins said "teens in Charlotte are having sex." According to Mecklenburg county's most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey, half of high school students have had sex.
Nationally, while teens and young adults represent only a quarter of the sexually active population, they account for half of the new STD cases every year.
Some doctors skeptical
Not all doctors are on board with use of the Gardasil vaccine for either gender. Some have criticized the speed with which the drug was approved. They say Pap smears are a highly effective tool for detecting cervical cancer and that the vaccine is just another layer of cost.
Once a consultant for Merck, Dr. Diane Harper is one of Gardasil's most outspoken critics. One of the biggest problems is "the way it's been marketed and sold and crammed down people's throats so that companies have a profitable bottom line for making their investment into the research," said Harper, a professor of medicine at the University of Missouri.
She is convinced that if Gardasil vaccine for boys becomes a higher priority, "Merck will hit the advertising market hard for boys."
And parents will start hearing about it a lot more. –Sun News
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