OC Business Journal

THEME PARKS: Hotel upgrades, new village in works at Knott’s Berry Farm

Fiesta Village, 320-Room Hotel Seeing Work Underway

By Emily Santiago-Molina | santiago-molina@ocbj.com

Knott’s Berry Farm is the latest local entertainment company going through its own set of on-site renovations, following a series of updates, construction and openings across Orange County’s theme parks.

Owned by Cedar Fair LP (NYSE: FUN) in Ohio, Knott’s announced on Twitter last month that a part of the park known as Fiesta Village will be undergoing renovations to be completed in the summer of 2023.

The area originally opened in 1969 and follows the current construction on one of its roller coasters known as Montezooma’s Revenge that began in February.

The attraction is set to reopen next year. Knott’s officials haven’t released any details on what the changes will be.

Other rides in the Hispanic-inspired village include the swing ride La Revolución, the rotating Sol Spin, and the Jaguar coaster. Construction walls were raised late last month.

Hotel Upgrades

Another project underway at its Buena Park campus is a sizeable renovation of the 320room Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel set to take place over the next 12 to 15 months.

Parent company Cedar Fair has directed $25 million to the reconstruction, according to its first-quarter report.

The theme park spans 160 acres. It began operations in the 1920s with founder Cordelia Knott’s fried chicken restaurant, a boysenberry stand, and later an Old Westthemed Ghost Town to offer local guests.

Cedar Fair, currently valued around $2.3 billion, acquired the theme park from the remaining Knott family in 1997.

Knott’s is the parent company’s only year-round park, and it has been seeing revenue, attendance and spending well above pre-pandemic, 2019 levels, officials said in its last earnings call in May.

The summer is going strong, officials say, as the company reported record revenue from the 2022 Fourth of July weekend across its portfolio of amusement and water parks.

Earnings are up 20% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, the parent company says.

Entertainment Construction

Other construction projects in OC include the upcoming reimagining of the 1989 Splash Mountain attraction at the Disneyland Resort to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, set to open in late 2024.

The neighboring shopping district Downtown Disney is partly under construction as a first step in Disney’s plans to expand its entertainment and shopping offerings by revamping its existing land.

Disney’s recent proposal, called Disneyland-Forward, requests new approvals from the city to allow for such development. The approximately two-year planning process is expected to set Disney up for several decades’ worth of development, officials said.

In time for summer, the newly constructed Wild Rivers Water Park opened on July 1 after relocating to Irvine’s Great Park. The rebuild cost $60 million and covers 20 acres.

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